TdF: Week One Wrap-up

Thoughts on Le Tour.  In decidedly French fashion, the organizers shunned the UCI and are doing it their own way.  A side note to that battle; does anyone care to note that ASO is a commercial promotions enterprise, not a sanctioning body?   Interesting that they don’t seem to meddle with the rules of their other branded events in athletics, motor sports, golf, etc… or do they? 
On to the racing and it’s the first Tour de France in years with no prologue and no 1st week of sprinter’s stages.  What does it all mean?  Well, the big boys actually have to race from the get go, for once.  Usually the token opening 10k time-trial is followed by a week of groupetto riding for the bunch while the sprinters duke it out, which means a nice gradual build up to the real fireworks in the cols.  Not this year.  Middle mountains in the middle of week one and arguably only one pure sprinter’s finish meant that the contenders had to actually mark breaks and put some effort in.  And it showed.  The media keeps calling numero uno contender Cadel ‘nervous’ but apparently they’ve forgotten that he’s one of those riders that’s so tranquillo on the bike it equates to ‘boring’.  He sure didn’t look nervous today after he decked it and had to get his raspberries patched by the Tour doc.  Bonus points for giving his only post-race statement to the normally non-cycling sports-writing giant Rupert Guinness in three words and a grunt. 
A media balloon worth popping is the notion that Ricco must be juiced because he loves Pantani and he rode away from the bunch so remarkably today.  Maybe no one noticed that the rest of the group wasn’t really trying?  Pretty easy to look super-human when the big guns are content to ride tempo and bide time for tomorrow’s cracker of a hill climb.  Interesting that The Cobra explains his hall-pass for abnormal blood levels with the quip that he’s had a high count his whole life.  When was the last time you had your toddler’s hemocrit tested? 
With Monday being Bastille Day, hopes will be pinned on a French victory – an unlikely prospect but hey, it’s le Tour and anything could happen.  More likely we’re going to see an angry Aussie and a Spanish armada assault the Hautacam.  The burrito brother Christian Vandevelde is riding brilliantly for the freedom-frites flag, but again, not one of the big guns aside from Valverde have really shown themselves yet. (Props to Allesandro for having the most balls-out flash bike in the pack.) 
The Garmin squad has spent more time in front of the cameras than any American team to date, giving unprecedented access to the press via team car ride-alongs, blog entries and interviews. Will Vaughter’s experiment in transparency hold together into weeks two and three?  He’s lost Big Maggie, but gained a ton of confidence in his riders with their breakout week one performance.   Meanwhile smart money falls on the other US crew, Stapleton’s newly branded high roader’s, who loose major style points for changing kits to a dull blue that at best seems to be mocking Astana and at worst blends in with the three other azure shirted squads in the peloton.  That said, they’re carrying three of the four coveted jerseys into next week; so much for bad fashion. 
Spectacular crashes, if only briefly noted by the media, have per usual marred the opening circuits.  In recent years, it’s been nervous sprints through dangerous streets that cause carnage but with the drawn out stages of 2008’s first week it’s been feeds, furniture and trees.
Of course, the big news of the first seven days was the booting of Triki Beltran, he of Armstrong lieutenant fame and former Mapai juggernaut ace, caught for EPO use.  As usual, the press has convicted based on an A-positive and circumstantial evidence, and as usual, the team claims it to be an isolated incident – if proven true. We’ve said this many times before; you can’t take EPO without someone else knowing about it.  Recent news about the test for EPO being unreliable has been proven to be taken out of context of the complete study, seemingly supporting the testing procedure, but the question of trust in the process cannot be taken out of the equation now. 
For the remaining riders it’s on to the high mountains during the home country’s big bash before a well-earned rest and transfer day.  Vive le Tour, let the fireworks begin.