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Intro

Today brings the start of the 2008 Tour de France with 197.5 km (122.7 mi). The stage winds from Brest to Plumelec and the last time this stage was run, it was won by Eric Zabel, who is racing today. Today’s stage is quite different with no Prologue time trial, this first stage is a real road race. This means that the man who crosses first wears the yellow jersey. This is unlike other years, and it will make for a more aggressive start. Breakaways can spoil the day, not only for the sprinters, but also for the General Classification contenders.

Stage 1

The course is fairly unremarkable, except for the uphill sprint finish. The last few hundred meters of this course cross a narrow bridge and then uphill to the line. This could kill the sprinters, or it could be good for a stronger sprinter like Thor Hushovd.

Note of Interest: When looking at the names of the category hills, Côte and Col are prefixes on most of them. After some research I have learned that a “Col” is a saddle between two higher points and “Côte” is a hillside.

Today’s Race

With Cadel Evans starting with number 1 (due to last years winner not being allowed to defend his title due to the shady past of his team, Astana), the 180 riders who started today will be looking to put their man in yellow today. Does it make sense for one of the favorites to win the Yellow today and paint a large target on themselves and their teams? An early show of strength could lead to a blow out later in the race.

An attack seven minutes into the race saw 8 riders pull away from the peleton. The breakaway includes Lilian Jegou (FDJ), Thomas Voeckler (BTL), Stephane Auge (COF), David De La Fuente (SDV), Ruben Perez (EUS), Arrieta (ALM), Lequatre (AGR), Bjorn Schroeder (MRM). The French will be happy to see their man Thomas Voeckler out in front. It is possible that he could hold onto the yellow into the second week. He probably won’t be a real GC contender, he usually blows up after Bastille Day.

The breakaway manages to put 2 minutes between them and the peleton, prepping to take the early King of the Mountains points as well as the intermediary sprint points. With 4 category climbs and three intermediary sprints, this will create an early lead in the other jersey competitions.

After the first climb, 1st going to Bjorn Schroeder (MRM), 2nd to Thomas Voeckler (BTL) and 3rd to David De La Fuente (SDV), Credit Agricole and Liquigas take over the front of the peleton and start to turn up the speed to reduce the breakaway’s almost-eight minute lead. Near the second climb, Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne take over pulling the peleton, trying to get their GC men into a better position to finish.

The second climb points went to Thomas Voeckler (BTL), Bjorn Schroeder (MRM), and Geoffroy Lequatre (AGR) respectively, with the first sprint prizes going to Geoffroy Lequatre (AGR), Lilian Jegou (FDJ) and Ruben Perez (EUS). Remember, no time bonuses this year. How much is this going to effect the General Classifications? Have the time bonuses had a huge effect?

Fast forwarding to the feed zone, the first crash of this year. Herve Duclos-Lassalle goes down and is forced to pull out of the race with a wrist injury. 179 riders left.

An hour after the first crash, a second happens at the tail of the peleton. Goes to show that Paul Sherwin’s adage of the back is where the crashes happens is more right than wrong. Riders going down include Fabian Wegmann, Jimmy Casper, Yaroslav Popovych, Frank Schleck and Sylvain Chavanel, all who manage to rejoin the race.

The peleton starts to pick up the pace trying to reel in the escaped riders. By 151 km, they have reduced the gap to two minutes and 55 seconds.

As the gap drops, the attacks with in the breakaway start. This always seems like a stupid idea. Breakaways have a hard enough time keeping away from the peleton when they are organized, but internal fighting means there is no chance of them staying away. Gerolsteiner takes the front of the peleton, putting the pressure on the breakaway.

The breakaway has fallen apart, only two men Jegou and De La Fuente are away from the pack. With the 20 km to go, Team Columbia takes the front and starts to pull the escaped men back. As they get closer and closer to the finish various teams take the lead of the peleton, QuickStep and Silence-Lotto. As the breakaway is about to be pulled in, another crash splits the peleton, this is a big one that will keep the large group divided until the finish line.

The finish was crazy. Several attacks came and went, with Kim Kirchen appearing to get the better of the day, but in the last turn, up the hill Alejandro Valverde shot from across the gap to Kirchen, over taking him in the last 100 meters of the line.

Conclusion

All in all, a great start to this years race. A big change, forcing riders to be more aggressive, the only danger is the crash. While they are fascinating to watch and an improvement over the traditional time trial start, the crashes can be devastating to a rider or a team.

With each team knowing that they aren’t going to be able to establish large leads by starting time trials, it has forced the GC contenders to come out early, which will provide a much more interesting race. We’ll see how it works out tomorrow.

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George Hincapie was the super-domestique for Lance Armstrong throughout his seven Tour de France wins. Until 2005, he hadn’t won a stage of the Grande Tour, but since then he has had a good showing each year, even wearing the maillot jaune in 2006.

Being a fine time trialer, recently proving he was a good climber and a pretty good all-round rider, why then, does George get left in lieutenant role?

Team Columbia has put forward Kim Kirchen as the captain and team General Classification hopeful, relegating George to the second fiddle again. George is not the spring chicken he used to be. He is quickly approaching being the most senior man on the Tour and with each year, his chances of winning are becoming slimmer.

I know there are plenty of riders who float below the surface of the winners podium, but George has been one of the most consistent riders, improving his final place on the leader board each year. I hate to see “Big George” relegated to being the forever bridesmaid.

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The 2008 Tour de France is just around the corner, officially starting in July 5. This year follows the major blow out of last year’s Operación Puerto doping scandal, which sullied the name of many current and former cyclists. This means there is are massive gaps in the field. Major riders who had been coming up through the ranks are now banned. While the people who have been fingered by the should not have the same rights as those accused of criminal offenses (The image of doping is enough to ruin the sport) It will make for an interesting race.

Looking at the 21 team rosters for this year, even without knowing the exact starting teams, the number of second string cyclists who are the big names now means that the race is really open. Watching the lieutenants finally getting to manage their teams makes for good watching.

Some of the teams I am watching include Team Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle (Formerly Slipstream-Chipotle). Both of these are “American” teams and after the reign of Discovery, it will be interesting to have two budding American teams scraping it up amongst the more established “European” field.

Garmin-Chipotle

Garmin-Chipotle has got my attention firstly with their riders, secondly because they are on twitter as TeamSlipStream.

The riders who I will be watching on Garmin-Chipotle start with the sprinter Magnus Bäckstedt, I love watching the biggest, heaviest cyclist mix it up with the smaller sprinters. He is a hulk of a man and not seeing him in Liquigas Green will make him less hulk-like, but that doesn’t change his speed.

David Millar, previously banned for using performance enhancing drugs, is known for his time trial riding. While I have mixed emotions about Millar, knowing that he is riding for the “strictest” team in professional cycling gives me some hope that doping allegations will stay away for the entire ride

David Zabriskie, another time trialer and interesting character to boot, just joined Team Garmin-Chipotle, which happened after some of the Tour preview magazines were printed. Zabriskie is a strong American rider, who became the third American to ever wear the maillot jaune1. A mac user and blogger, David Z should be a fun one to watch this year.

All-rounder Christian Vande Velde, another American, has been tapped by pre-race “captain”. Vande Velde is known for his past performances as a climber, but after a 25th place finish last year, he has real potential to shine outside of the mountain stages.

Team Columbia

Team Columbia (formerly High Road, apparently), has George Hincape, Lance’s chief domestique, who I would think would be the team captain, but all of the signs are pointing to Kim Kirchen, who had a 7th place finish last year.

The team is rounded out with Servais Knaven, a great attack rider, and Bernhard Eisel, a formidable former T-mobile sprinter.

This team is an interesting mix of riders, including World Time Trial Champion, Michael Rogers, who finished 9th in the 2006 Tour, as well as Kanstantsin Svitsov and Linus Gerdemann, who both finished in the top 50 (32nd and 36th respectively).

Individuals to watch

There are several individuals I watch every year, not that they have snowball’s chance in hell, but because they are personalities and riding styles that make the Tour interesting to watch.

Jens Voigt, of CSC2 has been an incredible rider over the past few years, finishing 28th last year. He will take the ballsy moves, like breaking away from the peleton3 and manages to hang on to them as a single rider more often than some semi-organized breakaways. I love his style and to watch him race.

Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole. Thor is a massive man, he and Magnus Bäckstedt are the tallest and heaviest riders, fitting for his namesake. Being a sprinter, it seems counterintuitive to be so large, but his size gives him power and I love to watch him get into it with my next man to watch, Robbie McEwen. Plus, with a name like Thor4, what is there not to love?

Robbie McEwen, Silence-Lotto, has be balls to say he is the fastest sprinter in the world. More often than not he is right. When things work in his favor, he can really cream the rest of the sprinters. Some times (like in 2006), when it gets really tight, McEwen has no problem throwing an elbow or head bump to make sure he wins. His scrappy style and his attitude make him a great rider to watch.

Conclusion

This years Tour is going to be a very interesting one. I am hoping to write and provide the best coverage I can this year. Unlike in previous years, I want to blog daily with results and my thoughts on the race. I hope to make that happen. Any one want to write with me?

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Being a new dad has lead me to codify something that I have been practicing and preaching for a long time. 360° Awareness.

I have seen plenty of time when my 14-year old brother-in-law is walking through a store, paying little mind to the goings on around him. Standing in the middle of an aisle, blocking someone who is behind him or reaching for something not realizing that his reach would cross the view or reach of someone else.

Part of the issue is that he is fourteen and I can forgive him for that. The other part is that he doesn’t have 360° awareness.

I have found that this lack of awareness is limited notd to my brother-in-law, but teens and adults of all ages. It is not a bad thing, but boils down to a lack of common courtesy. Not being aware of the people and happenings around you, shows you are disconnected from what is actually going on.

In a crowd, I am shocked by the number of times a person walking in front of me stops abruptly, for no apparent reason. This is baffling and quite jarring, particularly when I am in full gait and nearly knock the person over.

Being aware is not just a common courtesy, it is also safe. Knowing what objects are moving in the periphery can keep the people around you safe as well. A mother at WalMart wasn’t aware and her daughter was nearly run over by a palette of potting soil. People walking in parking lots are too focused on their conversations or cellphones, not noticing their path of travel intersects with a moving vehicle.

Try, if you can, for the next few days to be aware of the things that are going on around you. Try and be 360° aware.

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With the addition of Hazel, the experiment phase of my self experiment project (initial post, update 1) has come to fruition.

After months of priming my sleeping patterns with Pzizz, we are now going to be in the thick of up and down with the baby. Updates regarding how neurolinguistic programming has helped or hurt with getting more sleep will be coming soon.

To ensure the thorough nature of this experiment, I need to disclose that Esther and I have had a fairly easy first three days home. We have found a equitable system of sleeping around the baby’s needs. I am getting about three to four hours of sleep a day. I know that the total amount of sleep will not increase with NLP1, I am hoping it will increase the quality of sleep.

The next couple of days and weeks will be interesting.

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I have a daughter, Hazel. She’s new and it’s weird to be someone’s parent. That is part of what is weird, not being responsible for someone. I have had that arrangement with my wife for a year or so and I am used to being the provider. This is a different.

I look at Hazel when she is sleeping and it is hard to believe that she isn’t a child I will give back to another set of parents in a few hours. I have to remind myself that she is my little girl. I have been busy caring for Esther, helping her recover from the difficult delivery. Keeping myself busy really makes me cherish the times when I get to hold and yes, even change the diapers on Hazel.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind and I am running a little low on gas. The baby is due to arrive tomorrow, which has been draining enough. Between the micro losses of sleep each night when Esther wakes up, the excitement at the signs of pre-labor and trying to be the best husband / father-to-be, I have been slowly draining any reserves I have.

Work has also been taxing. The number of projects I have that are going to be ongoing through my baby time1. A new Help Desk, new Time Clock, a major print project, the day-to-day fire extinguishing. It has taken my head start that got everything ready for birth and blown it to heck. I feel like I should be working every night just to keep my head above water.

The real problem comes when I get home, the chores, taking care of Esther, walking2 means that I’m not getting anything done. Oh well, family is really the most important thing in my life right now. It will be weird to have not email or phone access for two weeks. It will be nice, but part of me will be nagging that the work is piling up. I am not going to let myself break that commitment. There will be not work communication fro at least 14 days.

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Esther and I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls today. If you do not want to have the movie spoiled, do not read on. This is an in-depth and critical review of the movie and no details are spared. Do not read on if you do not want spoilers.

Read more »

Social networks are wonderful things. I have been able to keep up with my cousin’s who are spread across the country, reconnect with old high school and college friends, but they also generate a lot of noise. Being a joiner, I know that I am partly to blame for the amount of noise I get, but still the systems generate a ton of messages that I don’t care about. Noise lives somewhere between spam, bacn and messages I want to get. Just like I try and reduce the amount of email I have, I would ideally like less noise.

Example

Here is the problem with the “news” I am getting. Most of the “news” items, I do not care for: What applications are added, who becomes friends with whom, profile changes. Frankly, I don’t care. Facebook offers privacy features that control how my information is distributed, but not the information that is incoming. Some people I am passing acquaintances with, I don’t care who they become friends with, isn’t there a way I can rank them a “Friend -1″ or “Friend +1″? The other issue I have with Facebook is the way people “invite” me to use applications. This is spamming, out and out. If I already have the application, then great, I want to know people whom I have classified as “friends” who also have the application. Otherwise, don’t show me “invites,” I’ll add whatever applications I want, not the other way around. You may be thinking: Jered turn off notifications, you don’t have to get these messages. I have. I am running silent. The way I get notification is when I login. So, if you are a “friend” on a social network, please do not “invite” me to an application. I won’t invite you, because even if you are an acquaintance, I respect you a little more than that.