Sorry...

Posted By: mellers on

Friday, July 27th, 2007, 9:00 am

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to watching, yet another disaster seems to have befallen this stricken Tour and you wonder just how far all this doping, cheating and evasion is going to get.

For those of you who haven't been following the developments, the chronology is as follows:

Patrik Sinkewitz tested positive for doping in training on June 8, yet was included in the Tour de France team but but dropped out after colliding with a spectator after stage 8 on Sunday 15th.  When the result of this drugs test became know on Wed 18th July German public TV stations ZDF and ARD dropped their coverage of the Tour. The rest of the T Mobile team remained in the race.

Michael Rasmussen, holder of the yellow jersey and leader of the race, was dropped from his National squad, for missing vital drug tests. He was unavailable for 2 out of race doping tests, although had received a warning at the end of June, the Danish biking authorities didn't decide to act until he was wearing yellow on Thursday 19th July. It later emerged he had already been warned twice by the International Cycling Union (UCI) for missing two separate random tests in the past 18 months. He seemed evasive about explaining himself, but received the full backing of the organisers for what seemed at this time to be simply administrative errors.

The Cofidis team in it's entirety (including Britain's Bradley Wiggins) pulled out of the Tour after its rider Cristian Moreni of Italy failed a doping test and was led away by police at the end of the 16th stage on Tuesday July 24th.

Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan failed a blood test following his victory in Saturday 21st's time trial. He tested positive for blood-doping after smashing his rivals in a time trial even though he had crashed heavily in the fifth stage to Autun. The team's hotel in Pau was then raided by the gendarmerie. "There is the presence of a double population of haematids (blood corpuscles), which implies there has been a blood transfusion with homological (the same type of) blood." Following these revelations on Tuesday July 24th, the entire Astana Cycling Team (including race favourites Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden) were asked to leave the race.

Michael Rasmussen, holder of the yellow jersey and leader of the race, was sent home on Wednesday July 25th for violating the Rabobank team's internal rules. The expulsion was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor and was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. He missed drug tests and was said to have been untruthful regarding his whereabouts when the tests were required. "We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable," Tour director Christian Prudhomme declared.

.... I am truly disheartened by these recent events. What was one of the pinnacles of world sporting achievement and a true test of strength endurance and power of man has been reduced to a sad and sorrowful display of lies and cheating. I am appalled. I am speechless ...

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Posted By: mellers on

Saturday, July 14th, 2007, 3:20 pm

Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called "Fête Nationale" ("National Holiday"), in official parlance, or more commonly "quatorze juillet" ("14th of July"). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the storming of the Bastille was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.

14 July is the French Bastille day, simply called 14 Juillet or less commonly but more officially Fête nationale (though it is generally referred to as Bastille Day in English). Many cities hold fireworks during the night. Many dancing parties are organised (bals du 14 juillet) and it is customary that firefighters organise them (bals des pompiers). Those celebrations take place from 13 July at night to 14 July.

The day officially celebrates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, though it is often associated, even in France, with the Storming of the Bastille. Military parades, called Défilés du 14 juillet, are held on the morning of 14 July, the largest of which takes place on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic.

The parade opens with cadets from certain schools (École Polytechnique, Saint-Cyr, École Navale, and so forth), then other infantry troops, then motorised troops; aviation of the Patrouille de France flies above. In recent times, it has become customary to invite units from France's close allies into the parade; for instance, in 2004 during the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, British troops (the band of the Royal Marines, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, Grenadier Guards and King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery) led the Bastille Day parade in Paris for the first time, with the Red Arrows flying overhead.[1].

The parade also involves the French Republican Guard, and occasionally (non-military) police units; it always ends with the much-cheered and popular Paris Fire Brigade (which, exceptionally, has military status in France). Traditionally, the students of the École Polytechnique set up some form of joke.

The president holds a garden party at the Palais de l'Elysée. Moreover, a major part of the cadets and some militaries take part to presentation of the Army in all districts of Paris.

Bastille Day also falls during the running of the Tour de France, and is traditionally the day upon which French riders will make a special effort to take a stage victory for France - sadly the best they could make this year was 5th!

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Posted By: mellers on

Friday, July 6th, 2007, 8:55 am

For UK viewers, coverage of this year's Tour de France will be available to those of you who have freeview, cable or satellite TV, on Eurosport and ITV4. Sadly for those of you who just have terrestrial, you will have to get a video or stay up until stupid o'clock to watch it on ITV1.

ITV4 are doing a daily podcast from previous tour rider and yellow jersey-holder Chris Boardman here: http://tour.itv.com/page.asp?partid=80

Coverage of the Live opening ceremony starts tonight, Fri, 6th July: 18.30-20.30 BST on ITV4 and you can catch a Preview and highlights Fri, 6th July: 00.00-00.30 BST on ITV1. http://tour.itv.com/

Eurosport coverage starts from Staruday 7th July at 14:15 BST (British Summer Time) and their TV listing guide is available here: http://yahoo.eurosport.co.uk/tvschedule_clng2_day1.shtml with their cycling pages here: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/

I'll be glued!

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Posted By: mellers on

Sunday, July 1st, 2007, 9:22 am

There are just 5 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of this year's Tour de France cycle race. The opening ceremony is to be held on the evening of Friday 6th July 2007 when the teams will be presented in Trafalgar Square, the very centre of London.

About Trafalgar Square. At the south side of the square is a plaque that marks the point that all distances to London are measured from. In the square is Nelson's Column, on top of which stands a statue of Lord Nelson, surrounded by fountains and four bronze lions. The National Gallery stands on the north side of the square. The square was transformed into a pedestrian only area in front of the National Gallery in 2003 and now welcomes thousands of Londoners and visitors every day. It is a focal point for celebrations to mark events, such as New Year's Eve and English victories in the 2003 Rugby World Cup and 2005 "Ashes" cricket tournament.

The prologue. On Saturday 7th July 2007, starting on Whitehall, in front of Trafalgar Square, the riders will race past Downing Street towards Parliament Square on an 8 km course. Turning at the Houses of Parliament, the route goes along Victoria Street, past Westminster Abbey and in front of Buckingham Palace. After the Palace the riders will pass through the middle of Wellington Arch, before looping through London's most famous park, Hyde Park. Finally the riders will pass back around Hyde Park Corner and along Constitution Hill, before ending on The Mall with Buckingham Palace as a backdrop.

Stage 1 - On 8th July 2007 the Tour will take in some of Britain's most picturesque and historic towns. The route starts on The Mall, runs through Admiralty Arch and then proceeds alongside the Thames down to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The riders will cross The Thames before riding past the London Eye and looping back to take in St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. The riders will pass over Tower Bridge, through Bermondsey and Deptford to Greenwich where they will cross the Greenwich Meridian Line, where all time zones are measured from. The route then passes through Woolwich, Abbey Wood and Erith, before leaving London for Dartford in Kent.

The route then goes through Gravesend and on to Medway, dominated by Rochester Castle and Cathedral. Passing on through Maidstone the route will take the riders to Tonbridge and then on to Royal Tunbridge Wells. The route winds through the beautiful Kent countryside, through the picturesque town of Tenterden and past Ashford to a potentially nail biting finish in Canterbury.

The Tour in the U.K. It was in 1974, after a start from Brest, that the Tour de France first travelled from Brittany to England, with a circuit stage in Plymouth. It aroused interest and praise from the critics, but no more. However, twenty years later, when the Tour crossed the Channel (via the Tunnel) to visit England for the second time, it was an immense public success on the roads leading from Dover to Brighton, and then in Portsmouth.

From a sporting point of view Bill Burl and Charles Holland were the first British riders to attempt the Tour de France in 1937, but it wasn't until the first British team took part in the 1955 race that a British rider made it to the finish in Paris. Of the ten members of that 1955 team two men, Tony Hoar and Brian Robinson, managed to finish the race, while their team mates fell foul of saddle sores, broken bones and a plague of punctures.

Brian Robinson from the 1955 team went on to complete a further 6 Tour de France races, winning 2 stages in 1957 and 1956. Tom Simpson followed Robinson into riding in the Tour and rode 7 times. Barry Hoban rode an impressive 12 Tours between 1964 and 1978, winning 8 stages over this time. Michaël Wright competed in 8 over the same period and won 3 stages.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Paul Scherwen participated seven times in the Tour de France and Graham Jones five times. Robert Millar was present at the start eleven times between 1983 and 1993, winning three stage victories, along with the Best Climber classification in 1984. As for Max Sciandri, he took part in seven editions of the Tour in the 1990s and won one stage victory.

In 1994, the Tour came to Portsmouth and Brighton and Chris Boardman broke a record by winning the prologue in Lille at a staggering average speed of 55,152 Km/h. The "yellow jersey" was worn by Sean Yates that same year.

British riders have won 23 stages in total and the first to wear the Yellow Jersey was Tom Simpson in 1962. He was also ranked sixth in the overall final classification that year. David Millar was the last British rider to wear the Yellow Jersey, in 2000. That same year, during the time trial at the Start of the Tour from the Futuroscope, he won the first of his three stage victories on the Tour.

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