As some may know, I am a Tour de France fan (among other things

french…he he…), so here is an update.

Yesterday, July 7th (Saturday), was Stage 0, which basically is a time

trial. It’s really a race to see who can do a circut the fastest, no real

contact with other riders. The riders ride in reverse order of finishing

in last years tour. Anyways the yellow jersey (given to the current

overall leader) was given to a Frenchman Christophe Moreau who

started fourth last.

Stage 0 was 8.2 km long, in Dunkerque under the threat of rain with 30

to 35 km gusts of wind west south west. The temperature at the start of

the trials (1600) was 21 degrees Celius and had to dropped to 19 by 2000.

The wind actually abated towards the end of the run so the fastest just

got faster.

Other notes: Lance Armstrong (USPS) raced last and came in 3rd, Jan

Ullrich (Telekom) came in 4th. Notes about Jan: a racing

machine…amazing…he won The Tour in 1997 and he poses a strong

challenge to Lance. He came very close last year but Lance is a good

climber. Just prior to Le Tour, Lance destroyed all times in a race in

the Swiss mountains, perhaps the same will happen here. The first few

races here are across the open plains and the end is the same. But the

most gruelling section will be in Pyrenees and Alps.

Todays update…Stage 1: Saint-Omer to Boulogne-sur-Mer. 194.5 km, 15

degrees in the morning, 18 to 20 in the afternoon. 30 km/h winds at the

middle of the journey…40 afternoon and towards the end. Relatively

flat, two very minor climbs.

Won by Erik Zabel (gets green jersey, points leader), Moreau is still

the time leader and retains the yellow jersey, but Armstrong is not far

behind (4 seconds). Jacky Durand got the polka dot shirt (king of the

mountains, best in climbs so far) and Florent Brard hangs on to the white

jersey (highest points in the youth category).

This stage was interesting in the fact that two racers broke from the

peleton and were way ahead when they were stopped by a train (where they

signed autographs). All the other racers were then also stopped for the same time period and when

they restarted the two leaders had a 9 minute advantage. But the sprinters

caused the peleton to catch up and there was a mad rush at the end but

Zabel (Telekom) took the lead with just metres to go and proved once again

why he is the sprint champion.

Daniele Nardello (Mapei) fell and lost 12 minutes at a very early

stage and will most likely be hard pressed to make up for it, but cycling

is very much a team

sport.