Posted: July 17, 2005

Cycling: TOUR DE FRANCE TIMES - Volume 3, No. 12 (July 16, 2005)

By James Raia
www.ByJamesRaia.com

[Note; Due to some transmission difficulties, yesterday's TDF Times was not received until today]

Publisher's Greeting

There's seven stages left and Lance Armstrong is steadily solidifying his seventh straight Tour de France title. His team won the fourth stage team time trial and Armstrong has finished second in three stages. But he shows no sign of weakness with only two mountain stages remaining in the 92nd Tour de France.

For live updates throughout each stage and for full results, visit the Tour's official web site: www.letour.fr.

News, Notes & Quotes

After 14 stages in the 2005 Tour de France, the top 10 overall is as follows:

1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 2,440km in 55h58’17" (43.32km/h)
2. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 1’41"
3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2’46"
4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 4’34"
5. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 4’45"
6. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 5’03"
7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 5’03"
8. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO - at 5’38"
9. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - at 7’09"
10. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 8’37" . . . 

Lance Armstrong has won a road stage in each of his Tour titles, with the exception of 2000 when his won an individual time trial but not a road stage . . .

With Levi Leipheimer in fifth place and Floyd Landis in sixth place overall, there's a chacnce for two Americans on the podium, which would be a first. Greg LeMond and Andy Hampsten finished first and fourth . . .

Iker Flores remains the lanterne rouge and is last among the 160 riders, trailing Lance Armstrong by 2 hours, 53 miutes and 59 seconds . . .

T-Mobile leads the team competition with a 6 minute and 22 second advantage over CSC. Armstrong's Discovery Channel is fourth, trailing by 25:21

Tour de France For Dummies By Phil Liggett, James Raia, Sammarye Lewis, Lance Armstrong Tour de France For Dummies is a plain-English guide to the world's most famous bicycle race. Featuring eight pages of full-color photographs from recent Tour de France editions, the 280-page volume is an easy-to-follow, entertaining guide that demystifies the history, strategy, rules, techniques, equipment, competitors and various competitions from the world's most intriquing sporting event.

Click on the graphic to order the book or for more information

Postcard From The Tour

DIGNE LES BAINS, France — The celebation of Bastille Day, the French Independence Day, was an international party in this small, old city.

The fireworks Thursday night were expansive, and in a city plaza a crowd of perhaps 100 listened and danced to the music of Patchwork.

The fab foursome, young french guys wearing outdated black English suits and bad mop wigs, was a cover band for the real Fab Four — the Beatles.

The young musicians spoke to the audience in French. They had British flags as backdrops on their portable, elevated stage. And they sang on-key renditions of Beatles' tunes in English.

One song after another, the tunes kept the local crowd and two weary American journalists entertained.

And for those interesting in future engagements, the band's French phone number was printed in faded block letters at the bottom on drummer's bass.

More from: Tour de France Times

Tour de France For Dummies By Phil Liggett, James Raia, Sammarye Lewis, Lance Armstrong Tour de France For Dummies is a plain-English guide to the world's most famous bicycle race. Featuring eight pages of full-color photographs from recent Tour de France editions, the 280-page volume is an easy-to-follow, entertaining guide that demystifies the history, strategy, rules, techniques, equipment, competitors and various competitions from the world's most intriquing sporting event.

Click on the graphic to order the book or for more information

Postcard From The Tour

Rest days at the Tour de France are always misnomers. No competition is held and the pace of the day eases, but it's hardly a day off.

Teams hold press conferences in their hotels and various Tour officials have receptions and social gatherings.

In today's instance, the press room was on the infield of a velodrome, in the Palais des Sport in Grenoble. The facility was a venue for the figuresksting during the 1968 Olympics and is now used for one of the most unique competitions in cycling - six-day racing.

As for the rest day, it was a 425-kilometer drive this morning to Grenoble, mostly along auto routes. It took just under four hours (including two 15-minutes stops), and I believe I averaged about 130 kilometers or 81 miles per hour.

Speaking of driving, I have a diesel Citroen, a four-door sedan with manual transmission. Today, I surpassed 3,000 kilometers of driving for the Tour, about 1,863 miles. The price of diesel fuel is around 1.15 Euros per liter or 4.37 Euros per gallon or about $5.25 gallon. Gas fuel is about $1 more per gallon. So far, I filled the gas tank three times, about 60 Euros per tank.

More from: Tour de France Times

© Copyright 2005, James Raia

Posted with the permission of James Raia.

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