|
14th July - Tour de France No Big Surprises.... Personally though, I think the sprinting would've been more exciting to watch if Cippo had been able to take the start line. It would've been interesting to watch Petacchi and the 'Lion King' battle it out in the sprints. Cookie (Baden Cooke) managed to sneak in there one day and although Robbie had the green jersey for a few days, he certainly hasn't been the Robbie of last year. Although the big crash marred the first week by injuring and, in some cases eliminating, several of the favourites for the mountains, it was really nothing new. Every year there are crashes in the first week that take out probables and possibles. This year one of those riders was my team-mate, When the Tour moved into the first of the mountain stages, we started to get a glimpse at who is good and who is the best. The first real 'mountain goat' day, up to Alpe d' Huez, saw the Posties take the helm and keep things under a tight rein for as long as possible. Meanwhile, Lance just sat in and controlled things as and when needed. I think that he's happy just to wait at the moment. After Alpe d'Huez, some people seem silly enough to think Lance is not as strong as expected. Let's not under-estimate him. He's a class act and he's smart. I think this Tour is somewhat of a chess game for him and he's picking his moves with great care. The stages in the Monday's stage brought with it some more drama and pain. This time for Beloki. He fell heavily on the final descent and apparently has 3 broken bones. His hopes for the Tour have been crushed which is a real shame as he was looking very strong on the climbs and seemed set to stir it up in GC. Hopefully he will heal quickly and come back in time for the Vuelta although realistically he'll most likely be out for the rest of the year. Full marks to Lance for his off-road action following Beloki's crash. He reacted so smoothly to a situation which could have dashed his hopes for the Tour as well. I was impressed, to say the least, by his most exceptional bike skills to stay upright....with such style too! As for my team, we are all very astounded and impressed by the performance of Keep an eye out for Jakob Piil too. He's always one of the guys to pull off a big one when it counts.... As for having the most disappointing near-miss at the tour so far, that has to go to Dave Millar after losing the prologue by .2 of a second after dropping his chain and losing at least 10 seconds. Now that's gotta hurt.....Let's hope Dave can give it a good nudge in the ITT. The Aussies.....well what can you say about that lot??? The boys from DownUnder have done the rest of us Antipodeans proud and although when in NZ, Aussies and Kiwis are each other's biggest sport's rival, when we're out of our respective countries, it's always awesome to see them kick some butt for the Southern Hemisphere. And finally, as for me, I'm currently at a training camp with the rest of my team getting in week's hard training before the second half of the season gets into gear. It's nice to be out of Spot ya, Julian
Check out our recent wait a minute interview with Julian. Read more about what Julian gets up to in the peloton on his Web site at http://www.juliandean.co.nz/. Are you interested in light, cool cycling headgear? If the answer to this question is yes, check out Headsweats. Headsweats has race caps, visors, and bandannas for active, avid cyclists like you. Visit Headsweats today to find out what Headsweats has to offer you! 
| bicycling app for Nokia phones
| 
|
|
