Dave's Dogmatic Dribbles
By Dave Osborne
Jul 7, 2004, 17:33

Tour de France - Stage 4

I could hardly wait to dribble today! Instead of dribbling, I was foaming at the mouth.

What a STUPID rule! Hey, Jean-Marie, I think the rules committee needs to be tested for drugs. This is a race, not a group ride!

Here’s what the rule says:

Times for all riders are calculated according to the gap between them and the 5th man of the winning team (scratch time).

If this gap is less than that given in the table below, then the actual time recorded by the timekeepers will be taken.

If the gap is more than that given in the table below, then the rider will receive the time of the winning team plus the additional number of seconds indicated in the table below according to the place of their team.

20'' for the 2nd team

30'' for the 3rd team

40'' for the 4th team

50'' for the 5th team

1' for the 6th team

1'10 for the 7th team

1'20 for the 8th team

1'30 for the 9th team

1'40 for the 10th team

1'50 for the 11th team

2'00 for the 12th team

2'10 for the 13th team

2'20 for the 14th team

2'30 for the 15th team

2'35 for the 16th team

2'40 for the 17th team

2'45 for the 18th team

2'50 for the 19th team

2'55 for the 20th team

3'00 for the 21st team

I guess what all this means is the 2nd place team would be given no more than 20 seconds behind 1st and 3rd no more than 30 seconds, etc. Of course, if the teams finish under the 20 seconds, 30 seconds, etc., then they will be given the actual time. Clear as mud, right!

Tyler Hamilton guides his troops in today's team time trial. Tyler and the rest of the Phonak team finished 2nd after Armstrong's US Postal. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.

Rain and skinny tires don’t mix. They were dropping all over the place. Saeco, T-Mobile, Quickstep, Brioches la Boulangere, all lost racers.  Worse of all was Phonak who essentially stopped at one point while waiting for downed racers. The sideshow to all of this is watching the team decide what to do. Should we stay or should we go? (wasn’t there a song with that chorus?)

To keep it interesting, USPS comes by the first checkpoint 37 seconds down in 5th place.

At the second check they are in 1st place and stay that way to the end. It was an astonishing performance by team Phonak who only had five riders left to make pace and placed 2nd.  T-Mobile brought it in for 3rd place.  Hmmm, I wonder if this finish order might look familiar come July 25th?

Hmm...does this picture look familiar to you? Lance Armstrong took the yellow leader's jersey after today's eventful stage. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.

Regardless of the stupid rule, Lance is in yellow even though the Posties won’t be given credit for the REAL time they gained over Phonak and T-Mobile. What a joke.

However, there is a little known rule that I must inform you about. It is called the “Super Dave Invocation.” It gives great discretionary power to a not so great and discretionary writer! The rule simply states that any member of the winning team time trial who is no more than 10 seconds out of GC can wear the yellow jersey. Therefore, Big George is my man in yellow!

Here's a tip for our readers...Roadcycling.com and the Tyler Hamilton Foundation have joined forces to run a Tour de France auction in which you can bid on a Tyler Hamilton’s Phonak jersey as used in the Tour de France, and a Roadcycling.com cycling cap. Both items are signed by Tyler “Captain Courageous” Hamilton himself. Click here to learn more!

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