Stage 2

T
D
F

2
0
0
5

Back to Main Tour Index
Go to coachcarl.com Home Page

Stage 2

Day 2 - Challans - Les Essarts 182 km

First, let me restate how significant yesterday's win was for Lance. It was a short TT at only about 12 miles as compared to the next and last TT of a little over 33 miles. Therefore, the maximum time you wanted to lose to any GC rider in that stage should have been about 25 to 30 seconds. Lance's nearest GC competitor, Vino, was 51" behind him which is a lot for such a short TT. With all things equal, Vino should be expected to lose about 2 to 2.5 times as much time in the longer time trial or about 2 to 2.5 minutes, which is very large.

Look at the difference between Vino and the other top GC riders down to Kloden and you see a spread of only 1'08" which is only a little more time than what Lance put on Vino. This means that Lance rode strong enough yesterday to have put from 2 minutes to over 5 minutes on the other top GC riders in the longer TT, not including Beloki and Heras, who were even further down. This was a really huge statement by Lance saying that he has improved enough on time trialing that, if he just holds even with the other top riders in the climbs, he is almost certain to win this Tour. He shook the GC tree big time.

The only question here is did Lance sacrifice any of his climbing to improve on his time trialing? An example would be Alcala of Mexico who was the best climber in the world but kept losing the Tour because he always lost at least 4 to 5 minutes in the time trials. So Alcala focused on improving his time trialing, became the best time trialist in the world, and began losing from 3 to 5 minutes on the top climbs. You have to balance your training so you become one of the best at both. We will find out the answer to that question in about a week.

Stage Analysis

The stage started with a rush for the first sprinter's prime resulting in ten riders staying off the front until just after that prime for points and time. That break was quickly caught by riders hoping to stay off for the stage win, to take the Yellow Jersey, get the KOM Jersey, and get the Points Jersey.

CSC used this break as their control break by letting it gain time slowly even though it meant they would lose the Yellow Jersey on the road. After the first feed zone, the sprinter teams began chasing to bring the break back in. Voeckler managed to stay off long enough to get the first KOM Jersey and then the break ended with the sprinters setting up. There were two attacks at the end of the stage by Erik Dekker and Beneteau with hopes of getting and keeping a last minute break for the stage win. They failed but these attempts do sometimes succeed so it is worth the effort.

The break was caught with only 8 kilometers to go and it became a setup for the sprint and the fast guys drag racing for the line. It appears that Boonen is in the race because he won the stage. I expect him, Hushovd, EcEwen, O'Grady and a few others to be most of the battle for the Points Title this year. This could shape up into a good battle because Boonen, Hushovd, and O'Grady do well enough on the hills to be there in some of the lesser mountains stages to grab a few extra points. This could be fun.

Expect Voeckler to spend the next week or so trying to hang onto the KOM Jersey. The battle for the White Jersey should be interesting because Cancellarr, Karpets, and Popovych are already riding strong against the older riders plus having Popovych racing for the White Jersey can provide Discovery a little extra team leverage and tactical advantage because having him get in breaks to gain time for that jersey will give the rest of the team reason to rest in the peloton saving their legs as much as possible. It will be interesting to see if and how Discovery will use this competition for the White Jersey to help their race for the Yellow Jersey. After all, if Popovych is in a break working to win the White Jersey, Discovery can't be expected to help chase a break with their own rider in it even if they are supposed to be defending the Yellow Jersey. See how those subtitles can be used to win or lose the Yellow Jersey? They are much more important than most people realize.

Did you see Credit Agricole help with the chase against the break until they realized their team mate, Bedrogi was in the break? I bet they blushed a little as they slid back into the peloton and the other teams thanked CA for do their work for them. Notice that having a rider in a controlling break can be used by a sprinter team to keep their legs fresher for the final leadout. After all, if your team has a rider in that break, your riders don't have to chase until the break is caught so that your team's legs will be fresher for that leadout and it can help you team increase its chances of winning the sprint by better controlling the leadout.

See all the neat stuff you guys can learn from the pro's if you know what they are doing? :-) Don't you just love bike chess?

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is one of the longer stages at 212.5 km but couldn't get much flatter. There are four KOM sprints with the first only about 22 km into the stage and followed by a sprinter prime a few kilometers later. Expect Voeckler's team to work for him to win the KOM sprint before letting a break go and watch for Boonen and the other sprinter teams to keep the breaks in until the first sprinter prime. Then expect the peloton to let a break of about half a dozen or less go up the road with riders hoping to win a stage and CSC setting tempo but letting the break slowly go up the road as a control. Towards the middle of the stage, expect the sprinter teams to assume the chase with what will most likely be another sprint finish for the stage win and Points Title. If the break is caught soon enough, Voeckler and his team should try to get him points in the last two KOM primes towards the end of the stage.

Since Voeckler was in a long break today, most likely, he will want to spend most of tomorrow resting in the peloton with hopes of making a break in one of the next two stages. Plus at least some of the GC teams are going to want to save their legs for the next day's team time trial to keep from losing too much time.

Welcome back to the Tour de France. :-)

Back to Main Tour Index

Top of Page