Isolation. Although Lance did not lose any time today to his main rivals, his Discovery Team was nowhere to be found on the final climb of the day. Rare sight to see Armstrong along in a pack of other riders--blood was in the water today.Odd performance since today's stage was not a mountain stage and the climb at the end was a cat 2 climb--not all that difficult
and not one that should have seen the entire Discovery Team slip off the back. Lance was his usual self and quite frank in the post race interviews. Not gonna be a happy discussion around the Disco dinner table tonight.Posted in the comment section is Chris Carmichael's take on the day. I have always appreciated the non-spin and his take sounds like the straight up and up review of the day. I didn't link his comments since the site I took them from would force you to register to read them. Enjoy.
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Time to Stand Up
By Chris Carmichael
Today wasn’t a very good day for Lance and the Discovery Channel team, but they have come through difficult days before and will regroup for tomorrow’s mountain stage. There are two weeks to go in the Tour de France, and anything can happen. Lance has a one-minute lead over his rivals, a team committed to winning, and perhaps the savviest director in the caravan. Today may have been a bit of a punch in the stomach, but it’s going to take more than that to knock the Discovery Channel down.
The true mark of a great team can be found in their response to adversity. There won’t be any sulking or brooding in the Discovery Channel hotel tonight. It’s not their style. Rather, there will be a lot of frank discussion about exactly what went right and what went wrong. If it was bad legs, then they’ll get to work with the soigneurs and chefs to find good legs. If it was tactics, they’ll make adjustments. If it was just a combination of unfortunate circumstances, they’ll express their frustrations and move on. This is not a group of men who lay down after they’ve been dealt the first punch. They stand up and get to work, and that’s just what they’re doing tonight.
In the other hotels scattered throughout town, the other teams are hard at work as well. No one is celebrating yet, except maybe Rabobank because their men won the stage and the climbers’ jersey, because nothing was won or lost today. Lance’s rivals see opportunity, and tonight they will be hard at work preparing strategies they hope will isolate Armstrong again tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s climbs are different than today’s. Today there was one shallow-grade climb at the end of a mostly-flat and fast stage. The front group went up the climb in the big chainring at about 25 mph, and that is not something we will see tomorrow. The rhythm of climbing steep and long mountain passes puts unique demands on cyclists, and hopefully the Discovery Channel riders find better legs on those slopes than they found today on the Col de la Schlucht.
One man whose legs may stop turning tomorrow is David Zabriskie. He was dropped on a climb in the early portion of today’s stage and after riding the entire stage off the back, he finished 51 minutes behind. He was one minute away from being eliminated from the Tour de France by the time cut, yet he made it and is eligible to start tomorrow. Before you think finishing 51 minutes behind meant he didn’t have to ride that hard, consider that the peloton’s average speed was more than 45 kilometers an hour (28.6 mph). Dave had to ride 24.5 mph for 5:54:12 to stay in the race one more day. That’s a hard day in the saddle, but a great testament to his willpower and commitment.
Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong’s personal coach, the founder of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS)
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