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Ricco takes the white jersey
Posted: joshJuly 5, 2008After a 5th place finish in Plumelec, Saunier Duval-Scott’s Ricard Ricco is leading the best young rider classification. He’s won this same title twice already in the Giro, let’s hope he stay in white all the way to Paris!
David de la Fuente also had a strong showing today. He was in a group that got away right after the start and didn’t get caught until 7km today. That’s 190km in the break, folks.
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Eating with Christophe - or - waiting for Moreau
Posted: michaelJuly 5, 2008
I was fortunate enough to be invited to dinner by Dominique from team Agritubel, who are one of the two SRAM RED teams racing this years Tour (along with Saunier Duval-Scott). Dinner was great, I had the exact same thing the team had (salad, pasta, steak, and fruit for dessert) and the team told stories in French, none of which I understood until Jean-Pierre translated for me. One major theme was cat abuse, rolling them up in newspapers and then watching them stumble. It was all in good …
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A chat with Vogundy – French National Champion and SRAM RED rider
Posted: michaelJuly 5, 2008
Perhaps the classiest and most polite rider I have ever spoken to was Nicolas Vogundy (28), recently crowned (for the 2nd time, 2002) French National Champion. The French National Champion gets a great amount of attention in his home Tour and is swarmed wherever he goes within France. Teammate Christophe Moreau held this jersey in ‘07 and it’s great to see it stay within team Agritubel. I got a chance to sit …
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Ode to technology
Posted: michaelJuly 5, 2008
Some of my co-workers are techno-geeks, which is a great thing, and we share a common place in the teasing that goes back and forth, me for more basic technologies and them looking to drench us in everything so new it still has a code name. I like what works but I also have to wade into the unknown sometimes with gadgets and devices that make my job easier and that make it easier to provide content to you here.
But please take a look at the picture of all the stuff I … -
How do they know?
Posted: michaelJuly 4, 2008You may wonder how TV, print journalists and cameramen can estimate when and where the Tour will be.
Turns out they get this huge packet of information that provides them every detail of every stage, including detailed maps, information books, through routes, stage arrival times at various points, history, and just about every other fact you might ever need to write a story. Pretty cool stuff. The handiest thing is the tiniest little booklet you see in the pic, the type is very small but every important stage detail is crammed into it. This is … -
Hey, its me!
Posted: michaelJuly 4, 2008
I took some took some pictures of the caravan as it appears before its actually the caravan, parked in a huge lot. Obviously there are hundreds of cars on the Tour and most of them are either race officials, team cars, or sponsor vehicles. The sponsors bring the color and pageantry to the race. If you haven’t seen it, …
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New Green jersey color is ‘citrene’
Posted: michaelJuly 4, 2008So I am onsite today, snuck into the media area thanks to some Road Bike Action folks, lots going on. They have random announcements here and there and all the editors applaud.
They speak French and so I pretend I know what’s going on and clap hardily frequently. The most recent announcement was for the new Green jersey, known as the Maillot Vert. The color has been changed slightly, its lighter a fresher looking. PMU, a French off track betting agency who has renewed their sponsorship of the jersey, wanted to … -
I love roundabouts, Coke and candy
Posted: michaelJuly 4, 2008
So after a seven hour flight to Frankfurt (don’t ask), another one hour flight to Paris, lost luggage, two bags of Haribo candy plus several cans of coke (insert Boonen joke here) to fuel the six hour drive, I made into a suburb of Brest at 1:30 am Friday morning. I was one-half hour ahead of my GPS devices predicted arrival due to “efficient” driving and the cool Alfa Romeo Bruro that Europcar provided. I don’t know how I would have made it without GPS, I turned 4,000 times and it was …
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Off to the Tour
Posted: michaelJuly 2, 2008Michael here, creating my first entry from O’Hare International Airport. Awaiting the departure of my flight to Munich, then Paris, then onto Brest for the start of the 2008 Tour de France. I will be bringing as much insight, fun, humor, and interest from the race as I possibly can. For those who know me you know I tend to lean towards the comical. I will hold to that tradition and do as much as I can to remind you that racing and riding bikes is fun.
I hope to talk to Christophe Moreau (Agritubel) , Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval-Scott) and …
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DZ off to the Tour
Posted: davidzJuly 2, 2008howdy gang. well its gonna be a few weeks till I make to the tour. Here’s a shot of me from last year. see you in a few weeks.
Travel
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