This Week in Road Cycling: July 7 to July 13

It's here!!! Le Tour has finally started, and we can all be witness to the greatest* Tour de France in recent history.

*I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but after the scandals of the last two years, and the boring racing that was the Armstrong era the Tour can only get better.

Before I get to the Tour I want to take a moment to recognize the great sporting achievements of Spain over these last several weeks. First it was Alberto Contador with the Giro win, Second came the Spanish victory in the 2008 Euro Cup, and today saw Raphael Nadal defeat Roger Federer for his first Wimbeldon victory. I forsee that the Spanish domination won't end at the tour and my boy Alejandro Valverde will be wearing yellow in Paris.

...Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Local Racing:

Week in Review:
-Tortilla Flats RR: Tuesday July 1
-Picacho Time Trial: Sunday July 6

Races in July:
-Tortilla Flats RR (Series): Every (Except the second Tuesday of every month) Tuesday starting May 20 though August 12. http://www.azcycling.com/08cal/FLYERS/tft_08.pdf
-Picacho Time Trial Series: 7/27: Picacho, AZ http://www.saguarovelo.org/infopicacho.htm
-AZ Track Championships (San Diego Velodrome): 7/19-7/20. http://www.saguarovelo.org/velodrome.html

Pro Racing:

Tour de France:

Stage 1: There was no prologue to kick off the Tour this year, probably to avoid a week of Cancellara in yellow again. Because of that, and the fact that there are no time bonuses on offer this year, the winner of stage 1 is going to likely be sitting in yellow until the first time trial this coming Tuesday. The course profile was relatively mild, but the finish was on a pretty gnarly hill that guaranteed there wouldn't be a bunch finish. This type of finish is tailor made for the type of rider who excels in the one day classics that are prominent in the month of April. That's why in the finale such riders as Stefan Schumacher(Gerolsteiner) and Kim Kirchen(Columbia) were seen(Photos are not current). There was one rider who beat all of them though... Alejandro Valverede blew them all away to take the first stage win and the first yellow jersey of this years Tour(photos are current). Watch the video closely for the red/black/yellow blob that flys through the last 250 meters faster than everybody else.

Stage 2: Thor SMASH!!! Thor Hushovd(Credit Agricole) took stage 2 after a late catch of an all day break consisting of four Frenchmen: Moreau(Agritubel), Le Lay (Agritubel), Voeckler(Boygues Telecom), and Chavanel(Cofidis). Fabian Cancellara(CSC-Saxo Bank) tried to do one of his trademark last kilometer attacks, but he was marked by Filippo Pozzato(Liquigas) and was unable to get the win. Here is the video of the last kilometer. Valverde remains in the lead.

Random bits:
-Take a look at Valverde's special edition Pinarello Prince. On it, it says "Don Alejandro Prince of Spain." How arrogant/euro is that?

I apologize if I made This Week in Road Cycling seem more like This Week in Alejandro Valverde, but I think a man must be allowed at least one cycling related "man crush". Besides, he probably peaked too soon and might be hemorrhaging time once the race hits the mountains on Thursday.

Until next week,

-Anthony

P.S. Versus is replaying their coverage of the Tour a lot this year. It's one of the plus sides to their being two American teams in the race. You can see the schedule here.