There’s certainly a lot to talk about tonight, what with the Tour of California underway and all. Lance Armstrong is back racing professionally, and back racing in the US for the first time in more than three years. And a few others are back, too. Ivan Basso is back in the fold, having served out his suspension for “attempted doping” related to the never-ending Operacion Puerto. Tyler Hamilton is back, after not having been allowed to start last year’s ToC. And someone whose saga I’ve covered a great deal the last two plus years is back, too. Floyd Landis was out there, grinding the gears on Saturday in what appeared to be misty weather. And again on Sunday, as the peloton raced from Davis to Santa Rosa.
The drama began even before the start of today’s rainy and thoroughly miserable looking Stage 1. Someone broke into the trailer where Team Astana’s bikes were being stored and made off with Lance’s time-trial bike, along with three other bicycles. Armstrong, who’s been a twittering maniac, first broke the news with this tweet:
Whoa!! They just came to my room and said our truck was broken into and someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf?!? APB out to the twitterati.
What the f#@*, indeed. Perhaps someone wants to hang the bike on their wall? Although, I can’t imagine anyone would. It’s a “one of a kind” bike, as Lance noted in a follow-up tweet. No cycling fan would dare show the bike, if they were the perpetrator. Too many people would figure it out. And it’s not like someone’s going to be able to fence the thing. Are they?
After that, there was the racing. And from Versus’ coverage, it looked like an awful, and treacherous, day of racing. I’ve done races in the cold and rain (worse: cold rain mixed with snow) and didn’t enjoy them one bit. The best part was standing in a shower for what seemed like hours afterwards, trying to get warm again.
Somewhere around mile 5, so Craig Hummer and Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen noted, Rock Racing’s Francisco Mancebo broke away and stayed away from the main pack, riding solo almost the entire rest of the race. It wasn’t until two other cyclists caught up to him on the finishing laps around Santa Rosa that he had any company. And by the time the two riders individually managed to bridge up to Mancebo, I figured he was pretty well shelled. Joining him in the last miles were Liquigas’ Vincenzo Nibali and Quick Step’s Jurgen van de Walle. Surely one of those two, who had spent most of the day in the chase group — one that included Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Ivan Basso, and for a good long while, Floyd Landis — would sprint to the victory. Not so. Somehow, after four-plus hours of what amounted to a solo time trial into Santa Rosa, Mancebo was able to dig deep and sprint to the finish, winning the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s start.
Yesterday’s winner of the prologue, Fabian Cancellara, was forced to abandon after falling ill overnight. What a shame to withdraw before the racing had really even begun. Levi Leipheimer did well in the prologue, as did one Mr. Armstrong. Armstrong was racing so strongly that it almost seems like he never really stopped riding. Perhaps the past few years were like that one season of Dallas where Bobby Ewing was supposedly dead. And then he suddenly reappears the following year and the entire previous season was just some sort of extended dream/nightmare.
Landis, the only other winner of the Tour of California, was given the penultimate starting position for the prologue. Although he rode a good effort, he wound up something like 20 seconds off Cancellara’s winning time. With today’s race, he marked the right place to be, and he managed to stay with the other big dogs for quite some time, before drifting back into the main field in the last hour or so. At least, that appeared to be the timing while I was watcing Versus’ coverage live on DVR.
Two years away from competition can take their toll. And certain other events have probably taken a bit of a toll, too. Watching the interviews between Landis and Bob Roll that they broadcast during Versus’ “pregame show” and that they interweave into the live show, Landis appears to be relaxed and happy to be back in the game. There’s a long way to go between now and the time the Tour finishes in a week’s time, and anything could happen.
Mancebo has a huge lead right now, but not one that’s insurmountable. Rock Racing will now have to defend the yellow jersey, and that’s going to take a whole lot of work, given the teams and characters who will be trying to take it away. But Mancebo may hold onto it for a few days, while certain other teams work Rock Racing over.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what tactics are employed as the race goes on. And it will be interesting to see what other factors (like the weather) will influence the outcome. Stay tuned. The Tour has only just begun.
It’s probably like people who buy stolen art: you get your kicks out of knowing you got it, even if no one else knows and you know you can’t let anyone else know.
Interesting little tidbit, I saw a link earlier to an eBay auction that looks surprisingly familiar. The auction appears to have been pulled down at this point. Not sure if it was a hoax, or whether the idiot who stole the bike was even more idiotic and actually offered it for sale. There’s bound to be an interesting story in that, whichever way it works out.
Speaking of tall tales:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/18731161/detail.html