Legendary Springs coach breaks down Tour de France prologue
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 03 July 2010 23:17
- Written by Nathan
By CHRIS CARMICHAEL, PezCyclingnews
Prologues are extremely difficult, and poor weather just adds to the tension, risk, and difficulty of the day. Champions rise to the occasion, and Fabian Cancellara yet again showed everyone why he's the World and Olympic Champion in the time trial.
The results today were obviously impacted by the riders’ fitness levels, but the road conditions changed from treacherous to nearly-dry within the last hour of the stage, and that impacted not only the physical limitations of how fast riders could get through the turns, but also the level of aggression they were willing to display on the course. Viewed in that light, Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky did quite well. He rode when the weather was at its worst, but still managed to go just one second slower than Ivan Basso of Team Liquigas, who competed on much drier roads near the end of the start list. Both men, however, lost more than 30 seconds to the highest-placed pre-Tour favorite, Lance Armstrong.
What we do know is that Alberto Contador and Armstrong are in great shape because they raced in identical conditions, both finished within the top 5 on the stage, and they were only separated by 5 seconds. Lance scored a nice psychological victory by finishing ahead of Contador, and it's always better to be ahead rather than behind, but in the bigger picture all it means is that they are both fit and ready to ride compete for the next three weeks. However, I'd hesitate to say today's result means they - or Cadel Evans, who also scored a very good ride - are head-and-shoulders above any other pre-Tour favorites. Click here to read Carmichael's full report from the Tour.
Carmichael, a Colorado Springs resident, is founder and CEO of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. and personal coach to seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
Weather
Current Contests
