Stage 18
Key Stage
July 25 Aime - Cluses 142 km
Yesterday I said something but forget to comment on it. I stated
that, unless something happens, Armstrong should have first place,
Beloki should have second place, and Rumsas should have third place.
Now, does this mean that ONCE and Beloki should stop putting the
pressure on USPS and Armstrong? Absolutely not!
You never know when some one is one pedal stroke away from cracking.
Therefore, you keep the pressure on your competition hoping that,
any pedal stroke from now, they will crack. In other words, you keep
working to MAKE that something happen.
If you have been racing any time at all, you have all been there.
One minute you are on top of your pedals stomping your brains out
feeling like the world can't touch you and the next minute you are
going backwards feeling like you just got run over by a truck. When
facing someone like Armstrong, just keep trying to be the truck. You
can't break them if you don't try to break them.
On another note, for those of you who don't know how to figure
percentage of grade, I saw an item on some message board (I only
visit them to see what others are saying and occasionally help
someone by sending them here) sending people to another site which
has information for understanding how climbs are classified. They
had a formula that was anything but clear with no instructions. I
looked the formula over and you need to not use it. It is wrong.
The formula states that %in grade = height/length x 100. What they
don't tell you is (1) this is supposed to be a formula for the
metric system and (2) you are supposed to put meters for height and
kilometers for length. But the formula is wrong because it should be
length x 1,000 not 100.
When finding a percentage of something you need to divide a like
value into a like value. In other words, you divide meters into
meters and feet into feet. When converting kilometers to meters, you
multiply the kilometers by 1,000 and not by 100. The prefix kilo
means 1,000 so that kilometer literally means 1,000 meters.
A more simple and accurate formula would be to divide gain in height
by length of the climb which should look like this: gain in
height/length of climb. Both need to be in the same terms of
measurement. For example, you divide meters by meters and feet by
feet. It is that simple.
For Example:
If you have a climb that gains 1,000 meters in 10 kilometers, you
multiply the 10 kilometers by 1,000 to change it to meters (10,000)
and divide the gain in height (1,000 meters) by the 10,000 to get
10% (.1) rate of climb. The math would look like this:
1,000/10,000=.1 or 10%.
If you have a climb that gains 5,280 feet in 10 miles, you multiply
the 10 miles by 5,280 feet (that is the number of feet per mile) for
52,800 feet in length and divide the 5,280 feet in gain for height
by the 52,800 feet in length to get 10% (.1) rate of climb. The math
would look like this: 5,280/52,800=.1 or 10%.
Also, you cannot figure percentage of climb by using the graphic
undulation charts on the Tour site because the number designating
the number of meters for the top of each climb is NOT the gain in
height for that climb. It is the height for that climb above sea
level or the altitude for that mountain top. To figure the gain in
height you must know the altitude at the base of the climb and the
altitude for the top of the climb. Then you subtract the altitude
for the base of the climb from the altitude for the top. That will
give you gain in height.
I hope that helps.
As expected, today was pure energy. The attacking started early and
didn't stop all day. There were some very interesting moves made.
At first, no one wanted to attack until after the first sprint
because they were afraid that Telekom would pull the break back in
for the sprint. But Telekom did something very interesting. They
sent one of their own riders up the road to take out the sprint
points with a break. It didn't take long for the message to get
around the pack that Telekom didn't want to do this sprint.
It was probably because McEwen has proved to be a little better than
Zabel on up hill sprints. It would be better for Telekom to settle
the Points Title in Paris on more favorable terms from a position of
being tied than to try to settle it in Paris from a position of
being down several points. They elected to wait and the front of the
peloton exploded up the road all day long.
There were three battles which were heavily contested today. These
were the KOM Title, the stage win, the race for the top five on GC.
Almost everyone in the peloton got in on this with the most amazing
attacking that just never stopped. Half the pack had to attack today
with there being 20 or more riders up the road on attack a number of
times. They even had another sprinter (see what those crazy Aussie
sprinters started!!) attacking the mountains and doing quite well.
Even after USPS "took control" (well, almost) of the peloton and let
the "controlling break" go up the road, the attacks just kept coming
all day long.
It was like an Irish social gathering where it doesn't matter who
you hit as long as you hit some one. It was the purest slug fest for
the entire Tour.....to date.
Did you see Rabobank doing a lot of chasing to protect Leipheimer's
top ten spot when several riders just below the top ten went up the
road for a long time? Did I tell you this is a team sport? I think I
did. :-)
I told you that the GC battle would probably shift from racing for
first and second to racing for fourth. It did and that was a lot of
today's action. Azevedo, Mancebo, Galdeano, Botero, and even
Leipheimer and Heras got into the action a little. Azevedo and
Mancebo knew they have to gain some time before the time trial or
they wont even finish in the top five. They spent the day trying to
do that while Galdeano and Botero kept trying to establish a firm
hold on fourth place.
At one time this battle got so fierce that it shattered the pack
with the Yellow Jersey in it to the point that there were only five
riders left in it. Armstrong only had Heras with him, Botero
attacked and Heras went with him to cover the attack, Armstrong
pulled them back in, and Botero attacked again with Heras going
along for cover. But Heras was called back to tow Armstrong
indicating that Armstrong MAY have been feeling the chasing and
needed Heras to protect Armstrong's legs. They then slowed the pace
to permit dropped USPS riders to catch back up and do the pace
setting.
There for a few minutes, it looked like Beloki might get his wish.
USPS was shattering on only the second climb with ONCE having at
least four or five riders staring at Armstrong's back. That was a
bad scene and it had to be stopped quickly which USPS did by letting
Botero go up the road. If ONCE wanted fourth, they had to chase
Botero.
That was when ONCE decided that first place was more important than
fourth place and let Botero go so they could watch USPS and
Armstrong for "opportunity". Things got very interesting there for a
minute. Botero got fourth place and probably knew that if Armstrong,
Beloki, and Rumsas got to watching each other too closely, he could
get away. It worked. Good move.
The peloton quickly grew back up to several dozen riders, the USPS
bunch regained control of the peloton as more of them caught back
up, and the battles continued. The potential disaster had been
averted.
Both Aerts and Botero moved ahead of Armstrong for the KOM Title.
They are now holding a podium spot. Jalabert failed in making the
lead break but was able to gain enough points to keep a solid lead
on KOM before he dropped back. Watch for him to continue this fight
tomorrow with the last climbs of the Tour.
Botero moved up to fourth a little over one minute ahead of Azevedo
in fifth. Azevedo, Galdeano, and Mancebo are all still within 20
seconds of each other so the battles will probably get just as hot
tomorrow. Besides, Botero is still just a little over one minute
away from them.
On a personal note, it is nice to see four of my top six picks in
the top six AND in the relative order I picked them for which was
Armstrong, Beloki, Botero, and Galdeano. As a matter of fact, all
but Beloki are in the spot I said they would finish in but I do
expect Galdeano to move to fifth in the time trial. Not bad for
being over 3,000 miles away. I am happy with that. It was a pretty
good guess.
A note here. When you see how much Armstrong is dominating this
year's Tour and you see that he is holding sixth on the Points Title
and fourth on the KOM Title, then you realize just how much more
Eddy Merckx had to dominate to win all three titles in the same
year. That doesn't include the many things Eddy did that Armstrong
hasn't even come close to doing. It blows your mind.
Wow!!! It was another great race and day at the Tour. There are only
three left this year so enjoy them.
Tomorrow
Cluses/Bourg en Bresse is 176.5 km long with seven categorized
climbs but there is only one cat 1 climb and one cat 2 climb. The
rest are 3's and 4's. The sprints are at 43 and 111.5 km. The climbs
are at 41 (cat 3), 57.5 (cat 4), 74 (cat 4), 96 (cat 1), 115 (cat
3), 137 (cat 4), and 147.5 (cat 2) kms. It has a down hill finish.
The top GC riders will want to go as easy as possible because the
time trial is the next day. The other riders know this plus there
are only two more mass start stages to win. Therefore, expect to see
another really hard fought battle for stage win, KOM, and fourth and
fifth on GC. Plus there will be others trying to move into or hold
onto the top 10 on GC.
We saw the peloton shatter today and Armstrong was briefly alone and
exposed to a team assault by ONCE. If tomorrow's racing is as hard
as today's and, after six days in the mountains with a reasonably
long stage of moderate climbing, the peloton could shatter again.
You know ONCE will be watching so you should be watching also.
A note here is that, even if the peloton shattering doesn't cause a
change in the top three on GC, if the shattering results in riders
having to chase really hard tomorrow, it could show in the TT times
the next day. This, in of itself, could turn things around. Tomorrow
will be very interesting.
