Tour de France

[Cory]

That was a nasty spill those guys took when crossing the railroad tracks. Looked like a whole lot more than a few to me, seemed like a whole group of the peloton went down within seconds of each other.

[Ben Lauer]

Originally Posted by Cory

That was a nasty spill those guys took when crossing the railroad tracks. Looked like a whole lot more than a few to me, seemed like a whole group of the peloton went down within seconds of each other.

Honestly I wasn't watching it, I was only able to read about it because I didn't have access to OLN.

Stage 8: Pforzheim to Gérardmer 231.5km

I wasn't able to watch or follow the stage to day, but here are the results and the rest of the leaders.

Apperently there was an amazing sprint to the finish, if anyone has more information, please share it.
See Picture of amazing finish here:

Only a fraction of a centimeter has separated the first and second placed riders. The top 10 in the 231.5km eighth stage is:
1. Pieter Weening (Ned) RAB
2. Andreas Kloden (Ger) TMO at same time
3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp) IBA at 27"
4. Kim Kirchen (Lux) FAS at st
5. Jens Voigt (Ger) CSC at st
6. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO at st
7. Cadel Evans (Aus) DVL at st
8. Christophe Moreau (Fr) C.A at st
9. Chris Horner (USA) SDV at st
10. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO at st.

Lance Armstrong maintains his lead in the general classification after stage eight. The new top 10 overall is listed below:
1. Lance Armstrong (US) DSC
2. Jens Voigt (Ger) CSC at 1’00"
3. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO at 1’02"
4. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC at 1’07"
5. Ivan Basso (It) CSC at 1’26"
6. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO at 1’36"
7. Carlos Sastre (Sp) CSC at 1’36"
8. George Hincapie (USA) DSC at 1’47"
9. Andreas Kloden (Ger) TMO at 1’50"
10. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO at 1’50"

Yellow: Lance Armstrong
Green: Tom Booden
Polka-Dot: Michael Rasmussen
White: Vladimir Karpets (claimed from Yaroslav Popovych by 1 second during this stage)

[Freddy Schurr]

Go Lance, Go

[Ben Lauer]

Stage 9: Gérardmer to Mulhouse - 171 km

- There was an early crash that caused some riders to be dropped off the back of the peloton.
- Mickael Rasmussen (DEN, RAB) broke away from the peloton to catch another escapee, Jens Voigt.
- Rasmussen was chased and caught a few times by other small groups, but he was never pulled back to the peloton. Voigt was very present in the chase groups and tried to stay with his early captor.
- Rasmussen was out in front of this stage from inside the first 5 km.
- He finished 3:04 ahead of his closest rider.
- The biggest change in the day are the to overall leaders. Lance was overtaken by Jens Voigt and Christephe Moreau.

The top 10 in stage nine of the 2005 Tour de France is:
1. Mickael Rasmussen (DEN) RAB - 171km in 4h08’20" (41.315km/h)
2. Christophe Moreau (FRA) C.A at 3’04"
3. Jens Voigt (GER) CSC at 3’04"
4. Stuart O’Grady (AUS) COF at 6’04"
5. Philippe Gilbert (BEL) FDJ at same time
6. Antony Geslin (FRA) BTL at same time
7. Sebastian Lang (GER) GST at same time
8. Laurent Brochard (FRA) BTL at same time
9. Jerome Pineau (FRA) BTL at same time
10. Gerrit Glomser (AUT) LAM at same time

The yellow jersey has returned to the CSC team after the ninth stage of the 2005 Tour. The new top 10 is:
1. Jens Voigt (GER) CSC 1,493.5km in 32h18’23" (46.22km/h)
2. Christophe Moreau (FRA) C.A at 1’50"
3. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC at 2’18"
4. Mickael Rasmussen (DEN) RAB at 2’43"
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) TMO at 3’20"
6. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC at 3’25"
7. Ivan Basso (ITA) CSC at 3’44"
8. Jan Ullrich (GER) TMO at 3’54"
9. Carlos Sastre (ESP) CSC 3’54"
10. George Hincapie (USA) DSC 4’05"

More to come tomorrow...

[Conor Ryan]

Team Discovery had a Really Poor Showing for the last stage, one of the key factors why Lance is soo poweful in the Mountain stage is the fact that he has a supporting cast like no other too. If they better start pulling it together or else it may get ugly for Lance.

[Ben Lauer]

Stage 10: Grenoble to Courchevel** 192.5km
**Stage will start in Brignoud because of planned protests in Grenoble.
This is the first mountain stage of the tour, and there are 2 major climbs in today's stage.....

- There was another early break away today. 7 riders (Posthuma, Brochard, Krivtsov, Bortolami, Isasi, Facci and Sanchez) were leading the peloton by as much as 10'40" at one point in today's stage.
- With about 7km left to go before the first climb's summit, there were multiple attacks from both the lead group and the peloton. The peloton caught the breakaways quickly but it still remembered the seven riders over 5 minutes ahead of them.
- The seven escapee riders crested the summit first and began the immediate descent.
- The young Discovery Channel Rider, Yaroslav Popovych, has crashed. He was cleaned up on his bike by the tour doctor in his white Audi convertible, and recovered quickly.
- As the riders approached the final climb, the peloton tried to reel in the 9 escapees.
- The Discovery Channel stepped it up in the last 25km and made sure that all the escapees were swallowed one by one in to the peloton. Their pace up this climb caused many riders to fall off the back, including the yellow jersey holder Jens Voigt.
- Lance Armstrong, 3 teammates and 13 other elite riders broke a gap with the rest of the peloton with about 14km left to ride.
- As Lance's Group slowly lost riders, he fought to bring back the single remaining escapee, Jorg Jaksche.
- With 7km togo, the group out front included only 4, Armstrong, Valverde, Mancebo and Rasmussen.
- These 4 worked together to stay ahead of the rest of the chasers. The Peloton was over 14 minutes back.
- Lance and Alejandro Valverde took off from the other two for the sprint to the finish
- Valverde wins the stage.

The top 6 in the 10th stage of the 2005 Tour de France is:
1. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) IBA
2. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at same time
3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB at 9"
4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA at 9"
5. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 1’02"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST at 1’15"

Top 8 Overall:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 37h11’04"
2. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank at 38"
3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 2’40"
4. Christophe Moreau (France) Credit Agricole at 2’42"
5. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Illes Balears at 3’16"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner at 3’58"
7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) Illes Balears at 4’00"
8. Jan Ullrich (Germany) T-Mobile at 4’02"

Jersey Holders:
Yellow: Lance Armstrong
White: Alejandro Valverde

[Ben Lauer]

Stage 11: Courchevel to Briancon - 173km

Highlights:
- With about 95km left in the stage, Lance and his team have dropped all but 43 riders off of the peloton. There were 4 riders ahead of the peloton at this point.
- At the top of the last big climb Lance's groups was down to 19. There were still 2 riders in front of them. (Vinokourov and Botero)
- Vinokourov and Botero stayed ahead of Lance's group and Vinokourov claims an easy victory as he out sprints Botero to the line.
- The 5 Discovery riders in Lance's group try to help him with a sprint for 3rd place, but Christophe Moreau was too fast and Armstrong claims 6th in the stage.

The top 10 in the stage to Briancon today is:
1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO -
2. Santiago Botero (Col) PHO - at same time
3. Christophe Moreau (Fra) C.A - at 1’15"
4. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC - at same time
5. Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) LAM - at same time
6. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at same time
7. Cadel Evans (Aus) DVL - at same time
8. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at same time
9. Mickael Rasmussen (Den) RAB - at same time
10. Georg Totschnig (Aut) GSt - at same time

The top 10 after the 11th stage is:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 1,859km in 41h51’57" (43.902km/h)
2. Mickael Rasmussen (Den) RAB - at 38"
3. Christophe Moreau (Fra) C.A - at 2’34"
4. Ivan Basso (Ita) CSC - at 2’40"
5. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) IBA - at 3’16"
6. Santiago Botero (Col) PHO - at 3’48"
7. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 3’58"
8. Francisco Mancebo (Spa) IBA - at 4’00"
9. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO - at 4’02"
10. Andreas Kloden (Ger) TMO - at 4’16"

[Ben Lauer]

I am not sure if anyone still reads this, but I will keep it up anyway, just for good times.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Stage 12: Briancon to Digne-les-Bains - 187km

- The points leader (sprinter): Tom Boonen did not start today because of injury.
- Today's stage wasn't very eventful as far as the overall rankings go. There were break a ways but most of these included riders that were not in contention for the Yellow jersey.
- There were 13 riders that finished ahead of the peloton, of those riders, the riders with the closest time to Lance was Sandy Cesar at 17'29".
- As you can see from the stage map, there were 5 climbs for points. Michael Rasmussen was the king of the mountain after 11 stages with 160 points, 71 more than his closest competitor, Christophe Moreau.
- David Moncoutie won today's stage, second was another Frenchman Sandy Cesar. This is another deserved victory for the French riders on Bastille Day.

David Moncoutie raced the final 38km of the 12th stage on his own. The Cofidis rider has given France its first victory in the 2005 Tour. The top 10 is:
1. David Moncoutie (France) COF - 187km in 4h20’06" (43.137km/h)
2. Sandy Casar (France) FDJ at 57"
3. Angel Vicioso (Spain) LSW at 57"
4. Patrice Halgand (France) C.A at 57"
5. Jose Luis Arrieta (Spain) IBA at 57"
6. Franco Pellizotti (Italy) LIQ at 57"
7. Axel Merckx (Belgium) DVL at 57"
8. Juan Manuel Garate (Spain) SDV at 57"
9. Thor Hushovd (Norway) C.A at 3’15"
10. Stuart O’Grady (Australia) COF at 3’15"

No significant change to the overall classification.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Ben Lauer

I am not sure if anyone still reads this, but I will keep it up anyway, just for good times.

Ben,

Keep writing these, if you don't mind doing it. Your "articles" are better, in my opinion, than the ones I would see in the morning paper. Your are more concise, clearer and provide just the data and insight that is needed. Heck, it's an article written by an (to-be) engineer. Gotta love it.

/me gives rep points to Ben.

Thanks,
Andy

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

Ben,

Keep writing these, if you don't mind doing it.

I second that motion!

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ben Lauer

I am not sure if anyone still reads this, but I will keep it up anyway, just for good times.

Keep it up man, they're awesome. I try to catch the last 30-45min of each stage on OLN before I go to class, but whenever I don't I know I can come right here and there'll be a sweet writeup of all the interesting points from each day

[Amanda Morrison]

You know... I wasn't really interested in this at all, ever... I probably wouldn't have known it was going on if it weren't for Chief. (Yes, I live in a cave with no television or newspapers.)

I read every update though, because you're very thorough and I'm interested in the event, and who will win. Thanks, Ben.

[Ben Lauer]

Nah, I like doing it for sure.

IMO this is one of the most grueling and traditional sporting events ever.

I'll continue in that case, except for the days of IRI. I'll do it, but it will be late.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Ben Lauer

I'll continue in that case, except for the days of IRI. I'll do it, but it will be late.

Ben,

To initiate you as a new referee at IRI, you will need to give periodic Tour de Lance updates to the crowd, through the microphone. They will love ya for it. Copioli and Green won't make fun of you at all.

Andy B.

[Ben Lauer]

I'll see what i can do....Possibly a Dramatic one man show of the previous days stage?

can anyone say talent show?!! haha.

I guess I'll just have my bike crazed dad call me everytime something big happens...translation: every 2 minutes.