Lance and The Tour de France

Can anybody explain to me how they score/time the tour? There must be some kind of idiosyncrasy to it because it's hard to believe that he's EXACTLY 8 seconds behind 3 or 4 stages in a row. Also Alberto Contador, who's in 2nd, has been EXACTLY 6 seconds behind for the same amount of stages. Anyone?

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on July 15, 2009 at 1:16pm
A reasonable question.

They don't bother giving individual times to each racer. Each rider in the peloton gets the same time. You gain/lose time by getting separation from the peloton - hence the "breakaway." The other way riders make up and lose ground is in the time trials. In previous years there have been time bonuses for things like stage wins, but not so this year.

On these less mountainous stages, there are usually bunch finishes, and the contenders' positions don't change as long as they are all with the peloton. For the yellow jersey contenders, the mountains and the time trials are the key stages.
Permalink Reply by keith whiddon on July 15, 2009 at 1:43pm
Thanks a lot, Joe

Joe TV said:
A reasonable question.

They don't bother giving individual times to each racer. Each rider in the peloton gets the same time. You gain/lose time by getting separation from the peloton - hence the "breakaway." The other way riders make up and lose ground is in the time trials. In previous years there have been time bonuses for things like stage wins, but not so this year.

On these less mountainous stages, there are usually bunch finishes, and the contenders' positions don't change as long as they are all with the peloton. For the yellow jersey contenders, the mountains and the time trials are the key stages.
Permalink Reply by S on July 15, 2009 at 3:32pm
There's a wrinkle in that stage finishes that occur during a climb don't have the "everyone in the peloton gets the same time" rule since the grades are steep enough to generate separation. Oh there's also a rule that says that if there's a crash in the last 3km of the stage everyone in the peloton gets the same time. For the team time trial stages, everyone on the team gets the same time as the 5th person across the line. So you'll see people on the team go all out and fall behind on this stage.
Permalink Reply by David Travis on July 15, 2009 at 3:53pm
The reason that the peloton gets the same time is that if 60+ riders each tried to better their times as the race ended, it would be chaos at the finish line.
Permalink Reply by Tamara on July 17, 2009 at 4:28am
Anyone else a little irritated with the wall-to-wall LANCE coverage? Levi - an American contender for the TdF podium - broke his wrist and is out of the tour and the first thing from the media is OH MY GOD HOW DOES THIS AFFECT LANCE!!!

I appreciate that Lance brought bike racing into the American mainstream with his long winning streak, compelling story, and personal magnetism. AND I appreciate that viewership of the TdF is up 80% now that he's riding it again. Hell, that the TdF is only ON TV in the US AT ALL because of Lance.

But do Phil and Paul [and Craig and Bob] HAVE to mention LA with EVERY breath? Is it in their contract? Do they get paid every time "LANCE ARMSTRONG" passes their lips? It is beyond tiresome.

What do you think? Would you rather hear about [Chicago-area native and 4th place overall last year] Christian Vande Velde's remarkable return to form after his devastating crash in the Giro in May? Or about Bradley Wiggins transforming himself from an Olympic gold medal winning track pursuiter into a world class stage race climber? Or about Columbia's mighty lead-out train for the transcendent Cavendish? About the battle between Thor and Cav for the green jersey? About Boonen's invisibility? About what a GREAT name 'Gorka Verdugo' is!? About young Andy Schleck's chances against Contador's uphill accelerations? About how maybe Astana should be riding for Contador - the best stage racer in the world right now - instead of a has-been grasping at his former glory.

Or would you rather just hear Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance blah blah blah blah blah blah blah lance blah blah blah.
Permalink Reply by Jamie on July 17, 2009 at 4:55am
I don't mind it at all... Levi is here riding in support of Lance and the team for the Tour. if the same thing had happened during the Giro (where Levi was the lead rider) I think coverage would've been different. I also think they've given fair time to Vande Velde and Wiggins as well. It would just be silly to suggest that Lance's comeback and current strong form isn't the biggest story in professional cycling in the last 4 years though.
Permalink Reply by Tamara on July 17, 2009 at 5:51am
Its the biggest story because that's ALL anyone reports on.

Levi has ridden the tour to win in the past and he had an extremely good chance of finishing on the podium this year. Yes, his leaving the tour is a blow to Astana -- just as Arveson's leaving Saxo with a broken collarbone was a blow to Andy Schleck's chances -- but to ONLY mention it as it relates to LA is just wrong.

Incidentally, Lance working for Levi in Tour of Cali and the Giro was good to watch -- the most entertaining thing LA has done all year. But seriously, Horner did WAY more for Levi than Lance ever did. Levi started losing time in the Giro the day after Horner crashed out and Lance didn't have the form to take up the slack.

And how is one mention of Christian Vande Velde to 1,000 mentions of LA 'fair time?' Allowing for Lance's past wins, 1 to 30 or 40 would be closer to 'fair.'
Permalink Reply by Tamara on July 17, 2009 at 6:00am
And speaking of Chris Horner - he'll be racing the Chicago Crit again this year! He's such a hard man - and I understand a super nice guy - it will be cool to watch him race right in downtown Chicago.
Permalink Reply by S on July 17, 2009 at 6:23am
Tamara said:
Its the biggest story because that's ALL anyone reports on.

Levi has ridden the tour to win in the past and he had an extremely good chance of finishing on the podium this year. Yes, his leaving the tour is a blow to Astana -- just as Arveson's leaving Saxo with a broken collarbone was a blow to Andy Schleck's chances -- but to ONLY mention it as it relates to LA is just wrong.

Incidentally, Lance working for Levi in Tour of Cali and the Giro was good to watch -- the most entertaining thing LA has done all year. But seriously, Horner did WAY more for Levi than Lance ever did. Levi started losing time in the Giro the day after Horner crashed out and Lance didn't have the form to take up the slack.

And how is one mention of Christian Vande Velde to 1,000 mentions of LA 'fair time?' Allowing for Lance's past wins, 1 to 30 or 40 would be closer to 'fair.'

I agree. The recent story about Lance possibly doing another tour just reminds me of the Brett Favre stories.

Permalink Reply by Joe Studer 8.0 mi on July 17, 2009 at 8:46am
I find it nice that the Trib at least seems to include something about Christian Vande Velde in most of its stories. I like that.

As for Paul and Phil, I know that Paul has at times worked as Lance's PR guy, and still works for Lance as a translator. But I think those guys just know that a huge chunk of their target audience is very Lance-centric. Bob Roll is the one that kills me the most with the Lance talk, though. He is just SOOO over the top.

And the VeloNews site provides a nice breadth of coverage.
Tamara said:
But do Phil and Paul [and Craig and Bob] HAVE to mention LA with EVERY breath? Is it in their contract? Do they get paid every time "LANCE ARMSTRONG" passes their lips? It is beyond tiresome.

What do you think? Would you rather hear about [Chicago-area native and 4th place overall last year] Christian Vande Velde's remarkable return to form after his devastating crash in the Giro in May? Or about Bradley Wiggins transforming himself from an Olympic gold medal winning track pursuiter into a world class stage race climber? Or about Columbia's mighty lead-out train for the transcendent Cavendish? About the battle between Thor and Cav for the green jersey? About Boonen's invisibility? About what a GREAT name 'Gorka Verdugo' is!? About young Andy Schleck's chances against Contador's uphill accelerations? About how maybe Astana should be riding for Contador - the best stage racer in the world right now - instead of a has-been grasping at his former glory.

Or would you rather just hear Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance blah blah blah blah blah blah blah lance blah blah blah.
Permalink Reply by Alan Lloyd on July 17, 2009 at 9:23am
But why hasn't the TdF been on a more mainstream TV channel, albeit cable, since it was on ESPN during LA's early victories?

They don't even appear to have the pathetic one-hour weekly summaries on broadcast TV this year - was that channel 5, I can't remember!

Tamara said:
Anyone else a little irritated with the wall-to-wall LANCE coverage? Levi - an American contender for the TdF podium - broke his wrist and is out of the tour and the first thing from the media is OH MY GOD HOW DOES THIS AFFECT LANCE!!!

I appreciate that Lance brought bike racing into the American mainstream with his long winning streak, compelling story, and personal magnetism. AND I appreciate that viewership of the TdF is up 80% now that he's riding it again. Hell, that the TdF is only ON TV in the US AT ALL because of Lance.

But do Phil and Paul [and Craig and Bob] HAVE to mention LA with EVERY breath? Is it in their contract? Do they get paid every time "LANCE ARMSTRONG" passes their lips? It is beyond tiresome.

What do you think? Would you rather hear about [Chicago-area native and 4th place overall last year] Christian Vande Velde's remarkable return to form after his devastating crash in the Giro in May? Or about Bradley Wiggins transforming himself from an Olympic gold medal winning track pursuiter into a world class stage race climber? Or about Columbia's mighty lead-out train for the transcendent Cavendish? About the battle between Thor and Cav for the green jersey? About Boonen's invisibility? About what a GREAT name 'Gorka Verdugo' is!? About young Andy Schleck's chances against Contador's uphill accelerations? About how maybe Astana should be riding for Contador - the best stage racer in the world right now - instead of a has-been grasping at his former glory.

Or would you rather just hear Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance blah blah blah blah blah blah blah lance blah blah blah.
Permalink Reply by Joe TV on July 17, 2009 at 6:46pm
I haven't yet been overdosed with Lance-centric coverage, maybe because I'm keeping up through Justin.tv and Velonews. Personally I think he's a huge part of the excitement this year, so I understand some of the focus, as long as we don't forget that there's a lot of other things going on. I think Velonews has done a decent job covering the nuts and bolts. Sad to see Levi drop out today.

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