I just received an email from Paul Terry Walhus pointing out that "Chasing Lance: The Fan's Story" will debut on the Travel Channel on Thursday, December 22 at 8pm Eastern Time. This is a film that documented the trip that five Lance Armstrong fans took to the 2005 Tour de France. The Chasing Lance program description on the Travel Channel website says:

Join five Americans on an emotion packed thrill ride as they chase the Tour all around France supporting their hero in his seventh and final ride. These are true fanatics who do far more than vacation, they redefine what it means to be a true Fan.

I'm planning to TiVo it in case I'm not home.

"Chasing Lance" will be followed by a second Tour de France-related program: Lance's France: the Traveler's Guide. I haven't heard anything about this program, so it may contain content we've already seen in other forms, but it still may be worth checking out. Both programs repeat beginning at 11pm Eastern Time.

Technorati Tags: Lance Armstrong, Chasing Lance, Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Frank Steele over at TDFblog.com pointed out that Lance Armstrong will appear on CNN's Larry King Live tonight (August 25, 2005). He'll be appearing to discuss the article that appeared in L'Equipe on Tuesday, which claimed that he used the performance enhancing drug EPO during the 1999 Tour de France.

Larry King Live airs from 9:00 to 10:00pm Eastern Time. Further information about the program can be found on the Larry King Live program page on CNN.com.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Many of us who covered the Tour de France have just learned of L'Equipe's latest article charging Lance Armstrong with doping during the 1999 Tour de France. Using Google Translation Tools I learned that L'Equipe used investigative journalism techniques to assemble documents from multiple sources that they say indicate that Lance Armstrong had traces of EPO in his system during the 1999 Tour.

In 2004, the Laboratoire National de Depistage du Dopage (LNDD, the French National Doping Control Laboratory) in Chatenay-Malabry, France apparently began retroactively testing frozen urine samples from pro cycling events. L'Equipe says that the purpose of this testing was to fine-tune testing methods to more accurately detect erythropoietin (EPO), a drug that is considered performance-enhancing. Some of the samples tested were from the 1999 Tour de France. The test protocol being used was not available until 2001, and some articles say that it wasn't applied to riders in the Tour de France until 2004.

L'Equipe says that several of the urine samples taken at the 1999 Tour de France indicated that the cyclists who provided them may have used EPO. The articles conclude that six of the samples were taken from Lance Armstrong. They concluded this by combining information provided by the LNDD with documents L'Equipe obtained from other sources. The information that links Armstrong with the urine samples is allegedly a six-digit control number that appears in the EPO test results from 2004 and medical control documents from the 1999 Tour de France.

It's amazing that L'Equipe would publish a sensational story like this now. It shows how interested parts of the European cycling fan base are in finding some nefarious explanation for Lance Armstrong's dominance of pro cycling over the last seven seasons. Why else would a media company spend this much time investigating the results of an event that ended more than six years ago?

Instead of questioning Lance Armstrong's 1999 victory, I'd like to ask a couple of questions that L'Equipe didn't address:

• If the LNDD really wanted to fine-tune their EPO testing methods, shouldn't they use samples that are taken from trained athletes who have intentionally taken EPO and also used any tactics designed to foil the test?
• Did the LNDD have any frozen samples available from other years, particularly the years prior to 1999? If so, did they find any evidence of doping in 1998 when there was a bona fide doping scandal?

I suspect that this was a calculated attempt to implicate Lance Armstrong on the part of some dissidents within the LNDD. The results probably took this long to come out because of the fundimental unfairness of using anti-doping tests that were developed after a competition is over.

The way L'Equipe presented their findings is truly insidious. The LNDD can deny that its researchers had any bad intent because they didn't lookup the tracking numbers for the samples that they were testing. The laboratory had to know, however, that L'Equipe or some other media outlet could correlate the numbers with names based on documents from other sources.

Lance Armstrong has repeatedly said that he has never taken performance-enhancing drugs. The authorities had many opportunities to detect any doping that Armstrong might have undertaken. Since they couldn't confirm any doping allegations while Armstrong was competing, I believe the book should be closed on these issues.

Retroactive drug testing will do no good for professional cycling or any other sport. Anti-doping tests conducted in this manner will cause spectators to further question the officials' ability to determine the winner in future competitions.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Replica Maillot Jaune from
the 2005 Tour de France:
Lots of Lance Armstrong
fans are buying a Yellow
Jersey to remember Lance's
seventh and final Tour
victory. [ Photo: Discovery
Channel Store ]

The Discovery Channel Store is commemorating Lance Armstrong's seventh-consecutive Tour de France victory by selling official replicas of the yellow jersey he wore on the Champs-Elysees.

The Yellow Jersey is made if Nike Dri-Fit polyester and has sublimated Discovery Channel, AMD, and Trek team-sponsor logos as well as Nike and Credit Lyonnais jersey-sponsor logos. These jerseys have an "invisible front zipper" which is really long. They also have deeper rear pockets than most of the jerseys the I own. I wish more of the jerseys sold for everyday training were constructed this well.

When we rode the Tour of Hope Fundraising Ride in Washington, DC last October, my friend Cecil Ledesma wore a replica Tour de France Yellow Jersey similar to the one on sale at the Discovery Channel Store. The biggest difference between the jersey he wore and the one being sold now is that the new one includes the team-sponsor logos just as Lance wore them.

If you buy this jersey or any other products from the Discovery Channel Store with a total cost of $75.00 or more, you get free shipping by entering the coupon code VICTORY. This offer is valid through August 31.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been searching around the Internet for articles containing illustrations of the icons that were placed on Lance Armstrong's bikes during the Tour de France. I think that the icons are really interesting and I want to understand the inspiration behind the project better. The most informative article I've found in these respects is Mark Smith Q&A on the Lance Icons, an article from Freshness which is a on-line magazine about sneakers, toys, and urban culture.

According to the article, Mark Smith fully developed the icons for the project that were originally designed by a graphic artist who calls himself Futura. (For more information about Futura, see his website http://www.futuralaboratories.com.)

The Freshness article includes a page containing illustrations of all 40 icons that currently make up the series with captions indicating the meaning of most of them.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OLN recorded its highest ratings in history Sunday as the Tour de France finished up with Lance Armstrong's seventh consecutive victory on the Champs-Elysees. About 1.7 million viewers were tuned in at any given moment of the program.

Ratings were up 17 percent for the entire Tour versus 2004 (2.26 HH vs 1.93 HH) and gross total viewers increased 19 percent (1.76 million versus 1.48 million).

Congratulations to OLN. They deserve the success they've achieved. They consistantly made their staff and hosts available to the media before and during the Tour de France. You can see the amount of information that OLN gave Operation Gadget in the following articles:

• How the Outdoor Life Network Brings the Tour de France to Viewers in North America
• Liggett and Sherwen Think that Lance Will Not Have a Second Act as a Triathlete
• Liggett on the Saint-Etienne Time Trial Course

I think everyone I talked with at OLN realized that this was their network's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect with its audience, and they did everything they could to deliver a great viewing experience.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations to Lance Armstrong, his teammates, sponsors, friends, and family on an unbelievable seventh consecutive victory in the Tour de France. I wonder if Lance knew how well this story could possibly have ended when he decided to make his retirement announcement back in April in Augusta, Georgia?

It's great that Lance has achieved so much in life that he can afford to leave the stage while still at the top of his game. Now he'll have the opportunity to spend a lot more time with his children.

Apart from the rain on the last day of the Tour, the only thing that upset me about the Tour was the way Lance's victory was reported. The mainstream media placed so much focus on Lance's dominance of the Tour, it was as if Lance won because he focused on winning at the exclusion of everything else. If you take Lance's comments about missing his kids and wanting to spend more time with them out of context, the mainstream media's portrayal makes even more sense.

The idea that Lance needed total focus on the Tour de France in order to win doesn't ring true for me anymore. That would mean that all of the success that the Lance Armstrong Foundation has achieved has just magically happened. The truth is that Lance has been deeply involved in the LAF. You can see the intensity of his focus on developing the charity in its constantly improving fundraising programs, its outreach to cancer victims, and its funding of programs that are making a difference in the lives of cancer victims and their families.

I guess it was a year ago when I stopped thinking of Lance Armstrong as a great athlete and began thinking of him as the world's greatest advocate for the cancer cause who also happens to be a great athlete. I think that the LiveStrong wristband program probably was the turning point for me.

I began wearing a LiveStrong wristband on June 9, 2004 and I haven't taken mine off since. I did this initially to honor my friend Peter Andreas Frank who died of brain cancer in 2003 and to honor people who survived testicular, prostate, breast cancer, and leukemia who are close to my wife and me.

I bought and gave away several dozen LiveStrong wristbands to people who sponsored my ride in the Tour of Hope Washington DC Fundraising Ride in October 2004. Every time I did this, people told me stories of friends or family whose lives had been touched by cancer. This caused me to become more and more passionate about the cancer cause and committed to supporting people who have the disease. More than anything else, this is what has caused me to identify with Lance Armstrong.

A couple of hours after we celebrated watching Lance's seventh victory on the Champs-Elysees, I received an email from a fellow ice hockey official telling me of the death of another official. He had a brain tumor since sometime in 2003 and literally died at about the same time that the final stage of this year's Tour de France began.

When I heard this sad news I realized that the Tour de France is over, but the race goes on. For Lance Armstrong and all of us who truly support him, the race will continue for years to come. It won't end until everyone struck by cancer can be cured and helped to regain their quality-of-life.

Lance Armstrong can't personally know every cancer victim; That's up to people like us who support the Lance Armstrong Foundation at a grassroots level. We're part of a peloton that stretches out to the horizon.

Lance retired to spend more time with his kids and the rest of his family, but he's planning to spend more time with all of us as well. Ride on, Lance. I'll meet you at The Ellipse in October.

Thanks for reading Operation Gadget's coverage of the 2005 Tour de France. I hope you'll continue to stop by for our coverage of electronic gadgets, fitness gadgets, endurance athletic events, and the technology used in sports.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, Tour of Hope, LiveStrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alexander Vinokourov powered away from the field in the last 500 meters to win Stage 21 of the 2005 Tour de France on the Champs-Elysees. Vinokourov brilliantly countered an attack by Francaise de Jeux's rider Bradley McGee and held off McGee, Fassa Bortolo rider Fabian Cancellara, and the rest of the field.

I think most people were expecting a mass field sprint. So was I. When the weather turned ugly in Paris in the middle of the afternoon, I expected the stage to be shortened. It turned out that the judges had decided to take the finishing times for the General Classification before the finishing circuits began.

On OLN, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen reported that there would be no time bonuses awarded at the end of the stage today, and that the only thing at stake at the finish would be points for the Sprint competition. We were told that this decision was taken because of the dangerous nature of the finish due to a combination of the weather conditions and the road surface on the Champs-Elysees.

It wasn't clear what happened after that announcement was made, but at some point the jury of race commissars decided to award time bonuses on the finish line after all. As a result Vinokourov was able to vault over Levi Leipheimer in the General Classification standings into fifth place.

I hope that Team Gerolsteiner was told that the time bonuses would be in effect at the stage finish today, so that they had an opportunity to defend Leipheimer's G.C. position. I suspect, however, that they either did not get the message from the race commissars, or the decision not to award the time bonuses was reversed after the race ended.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Alexander Vinokouov, Levi Leipheimer, Fabian Cancellara, Bradley McGee

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lance Armstrong clinched a seventh victory in the Tour de France today by decisively winning the Stage 20 Time Trial. I was not surprised that Lance won or that Jan Ullrich finished a close second. What did surprise me, however, was the relatively poor performance of Ivan Basso and the incredibly bad luck and nervousness of Mickael Rasmussen.

When I talked with Phil Liggett a few days ago, he confirmed that Stage 20 was very hilly and technical. This is how it appeared when I looked at the course using Google Earth. If this was clear to me, you'd think it would be clear to the Director Sportifs and other personnel of the leading teams.

One of the things I noticed was that the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team chose spoked wheels during Stage 20. Most of the other leading teams opted for rear disk wheels. Rear disk wheels are better suited to less technical courses. They tend to reduce the maneuverability of a time trial bike rather significantly.

The race was pretty significantly affected by these choices. Mickael Rasmussen fell while trying to get around a traffic circle near the beginning of the stage. He had equipment problems, was unsteady on his bike for the rest of the race, and lost 7 minutes 47 seconds overall. Ivan Basso rode strongly at the very beginning of his time trial, but looked very tentative in the middle. OLN analysts later suggested he had gone out too quickly at the beginning of his ride, but that doesn't explain the way he handled his bike in the middle third of the course.

Santiago Botero of Phonak, who also rode a rear disk missed a turn and rode into the crowd early on in the OLN broadcast. The worst handling problem that befell Discovery was Paolo Salvodelli at the first traffic circle, but he was not riding a rear disk. He was able to keep the bike under control and didn't crash.

In spite of these issues, I thought that this was one of the most exciting time trials I'd seen in a long time. The course was really challenging. The television crews from OLN and France Television did a fantastic job in terms of getting the right pictures on the screen at the right times. About the only thing to complain about from a TV-watching standpoint was the chyron graphics that OLN made itself. In some cases, they were poorly timed or not up to date. This is not the only time this has happened to OLN during the 2005 Tour, but Liggett and Sherwen did a good job of correcting information that was put on-screen that wasn't correct.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Phil Liggett, Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Mickael Rasmussen, Santiago Botero, Paolo Salvodelli

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Before the last rest day, I spent a long time researching potential questions for Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. I was offered the opportunity to participate in a OLN-sponsored rest day conference call that day.

It wasn't clear back then if Lance Armstrong was going to be able to maintain the time advantage that he had over his rivals because the Pyrenees weren't over. So, I looked at the Saint-Etienne Time Trial Course and saw how difficult it was. This is why I asked:

Which is the more challenging aspect of the Stage 20 time trial, the elevation change or the number of turns?

Phil Liggett's response was:

Both are challenges. The area around St Etienne is very hilly and technical. It will a test of skill and the one with the best technical skills will win among the top riders.

Phil's response leaves me to choose the riders among the leaders who have the best technical skills.

I believe that Lance Armstrong will win today. Tomorrow's stage from Corbeil-Essonnes to the Champs-Elysees will be the greatest of all parade laps right up to the Eiffel Tower. I think he's got the best mix of time trial technique, climbing power, and bike-handling skill of the four riders I'm comparing here. This is the moment for him to leave it all on the road, if he wants to do so.

Jan Ullrich has a lot on the line today. If he puts in a great performance, he can replace Mickael Rasmussen on the podium. The question in my mind is: will the technical nature of the course work to his disadvantage? He's not the greatest bike handler on twisting courses and he doesn't have the explosive acceleration on climbs that would be most beneficial.

The media says that Ivan Basso is hoping to do a great ride in this stage in order to show that he's Lance's heir apparent. He's really improved his time trialing over last year, as he demonstrated in this year's Giro d'Italia. Nobody's really in a position to challenge him, because he's one minute ahead of Mickael Rasmussen overall. Rasmussen's likely to lose time to Basso today.

Mickael Rasmussen has overachieved in General Classification terms. He's expended a lot of effort defending his third-place position. Rasmussen finished 174th in the Stage 1 Time Trial, losing 2 minutes and 6 seconds to Ullrich over 19 kilometers. Can he put together a fantastic ride today and stay on the podium?

The big question in my mind is whether Basso, who is riding mainly for pride, will out ride Ullrich who needs a very good performance to finish on the podium? I'll be surprised if Lance does not win the stage today, unless he has some kind of problem on the road.

TDFblog is live blogging Stage 20.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Phil Liggett, Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Mickael Rasmussen

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

The Science of
Lance Armstrong DVD
is available from the
Discovery Channel
On-line Store.
[ Photo: Discovery Channel ]

Martin O'Donnell watches TV Cinq from France Television on Comcast in order to practice his French and keep up with what's going on there. The other day he asked:

Discovery Channel is getting massive publicity on French TV thanks to Lance Armstrong's team. How many Discovery networks are available to people in Europe? How important is Europe to Discovery Channel's cycling sponsorship strategy?

I looked into this and talked to a few friends in the pro cycling community and here's what I found:

• Discovery Channel networks are available in at least 14 countries in Europe and the Middle East including:
  • Belgium
  • Czech Republic
  • Germany
  • France
  • Italy
  • Hungary
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom

• The Science of Lance Armstrong was recently aired as a "Watch with the World" event. It was broadcast to 160 countries in 35 languages.

• The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team is the "most international" team on the Pro Tour circuit. They have riders from 15 different countries including the USA and Canada, several countries in western and eastern Europe, Russia, and the Ukraine.

• Discovery Communications was reportedly heavily involved in the signing of Fumi Beppu, a Team Discovery member from Japan. They probably feel that having a Japanese rider will be good for building public relations in Japan.
  

One of the points I made in Leblanc Made the Tour de France a Top International Television Event was that Discovery Communications wouldn't have chosen to sponsor a professional cycling team if the massive growth in international interest in the Tour de France hadn't happened over the past seven to 10 years. I think that Discovery and its co-sponsor AMD have benefitted a lot more from the media exposure that the team has generated this year than the team's previous sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service did during its sponsorship.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, Fumi Beppu, Discovery Channel, AMD

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the article called Liggett and Sherwen Think that Lance Will Not Have a Second Act as a Triathlete, I mentioned that I had passed on a number of follow up questions for Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen to my contacts at OLN and hoped to get at least a few of them answered. Earlier today I got answers to some of my questions from Phil and Paul.

Phil's overarching response to my questions was, "I'm in the car. We can’t answer all these questions as they would take us ages. We are giving short replies. We're getting tired...."

One question I asked was in regard to Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Director of the Tour de France. Leblanc is retiring this year after 16 years as Tour Director.

Do you have any comment on the legacy of Jean-Marie Leblanc as he retires?

Phil and Paul's response was:

JML {Jean-Marie Leblanc} has been largely responsible for opening the Tour worldwide. The string of AMERICAN wins (Armstrong and Lemond) was what he wanted to see. This way he was able to sell the race to bigger sponsors and get the race to grow in stature. The Tour is now one of the World's major sporting events with TV in over 150 countries. This is his legacy.

The magnitude of worldwide coverage is underscored by the amazing growth of the audience in the United States. In 1989 U.S. fans of professional cycling had to tune into one hour of television coverage on Sunday afternoon and viewership was far below that of other mid-Summer weekend sports events. Today, OLN has 1.6 million viewers who watch some of the 14 to 16 hours of daily coverage.

The Tour is one of the biggest events on French television each year, but it's audience is estimated to be only 4 million daily TV viewers. That's a 46-percent share of the French TV audience, but it's still a fairly small group of people from a broadcast perspective.

The only way to find millions of new fans for the Tour de France was to make the event more attractive to international audiences. It was a goal before Lance Armstrong made his comeback, but Lance's repeated victories and the engagement of the general public in America made it easy for the Tour to shatter its growth targets.

Lance Armstrong is a marketing phenomenon, but without the massive international television audience growth sponsors like the Discovery Channel and AMD would never have made the financial commitment that they've made to sponsor the leading professional cycling team in the world. Jean-Marie Leblanc played a key role in driving this growth, and we should say thanks to him for the part he played in creating a boom in cycling interest here in the United States.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Jean-Marie Leblanc, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

John Robson published a good article comparing OLN's coverage of the Tour de France to that of the major European television networks.

I thought about writing an article like this myself but I haven't done it because I would want to compare apples-to-apples: OLN's coverage in 2005 to France 2 and 3 in 2005. Most people that cover the Tour only see European TV or OLN during the Tour. For instance, when Kathleen and I went to Europe during our honeymoon in 2001, we saw the Tour on France 2 and Eurosport, but not OLN.

Regarding the differences in coverage, Robson says:

...though they share the same camera feeds, there are significant differences between the final coverage as seen in Europe versus OLN, and it's not just the "all Lance, all the time" viewpoint we see here in the states.

Depending on the stage, French television would sometimes carry the whole thing or wait until things got interesting before they went live. In the evenings, I caught some specialty tour programming, like a feature piece on one rider being allowed to get off on the bike in his hometown and be greeted by the locals before jumping back into the race....

...they create much more interesting graphics on Eurosport instead of showing talking heads. While you rarely see even a title identifying the speaker, you often see elaborate summations of who gained or lost the most time in the previous day’s stage and how that affected their overall standings in the general classification....

Eurosport also stays almost 100% on the action and rarely does any kind of feature cutaway of the sort we have grown so used to here.... It seems like American TV producers just can’t believe fans would actually want to watch athletes ride or run without learning their personal stories, where Euro producers fear for their lives if they were to cut away from the action for even one second.

Since Robson has been to see the Tour in Europe this year and returned to the U.S. before it ended, I think the insights he provided are pretty unique.

One thing I'd like to add after reading the comments attached to Robson's article: Eurosport has different feeds destined for different parts of Europe. When travelling in non-English speaking parts of Europe, I've noticed that hotels often carry the version of Eurosport that has no commentary at all. It's mostly the multi-destinational feed of the event they are covering, which includes sound from the playfield or the road but little or no other audio, except during commercials.

So when Chad Reid said, "A Eurosport commentary is seldom a necessary companion to the visuals," he's more than right. Eurosport commentary is not only unnecessary, it's not available in many places.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Eurosport

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was pleased to see Paolo Salvodelli won Stage 17 for Discovery earlier today in Revel. I had been concerned that Salvodelli wasn't doing well in the Tour since many riders who push themselves to the limit in the Giro d'Italia really suffer if they also do the Tour.

I had no basis for thinking that Salvodelli wasn't doing well in the Tour, apart from the fact that the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team hasn't used him the way I expected. No one should consider me a race tactitian.

I keep reading articles that say things like "riders are afraid of Lance" and "the Discovery team has not performed as well as in recent years". I don't think either of these ideas is entirely correct. Riders have attacked Armstrong whenever they felt they could. This isn't a tactic I'd associate with fear.

Similarly, the withering pace set by T-Mobile far from the finish line on some of the mountain stages has blown apart the peloton. This more than anything else is what's caused analysts to question the strength of Team Discovery. I think Johan Bruyneel has a point, however, when he says that weak teams don't hold the Yellow and White Jerseys as well as win multiple stages. Today's result makes that argument even more emphatic.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, Paolo Salvodelli, Johan Bruyneel

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alex Trautwig continues to find and photograph things that Operation Gadget readers want to see at the Tour de France. This time he's documented the Tour de France Podium and the media area that is immediately behind it. This article is worth reading if you want to see where Craig Hummer from OLN and other TV journalists interview Lance Armstrong and the daily stage winners. It also shows where that area is in relation to the podium.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Craig Hummer, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A video clip showing a spectator striking rider Andrey Kashechkin on the nose was shown on OLN about 22 minutes into the live broadcast of Stage 16. I watched this video clip about 15 times, taking full advantage of my TiVo.

The group of spectators who were involved in the incident were three young women and a man who were standing on the left shoulder of the road. At least two of the young women were waving inflated noise makers that were distributed by the Caravane Publicitaire, a group of vehicles representing the sponsors of the Tour de France. The women appeared to be waving the noisemakers at the riders who were passing a foot or two in front of them at the time.

One of the young women clearly struck Kashechkin in the face. She may have made contact with him with the noisemaker, her hand, or both. In any case, she dropped the noisemaker immediately after making contact with Kashechkin's face.

It wasn't clear whether the young man who was with the women was waving his noisemakers at the riders or clapping them together, because he wasn't visible to the camera until after the incident. When he was seen on camera, he was clapping the noisemakers together.

I couldn't tell whether the spectators intended to strike Kashechkin or not, but it was clear to me that the situation was quite different from the moment in 2003 when Lance Armstrong fell off of his bike after his handle bars became tangled in the loops of a spectator's bag. In that case, the spectator holding the bag was a young child who was not paying attention to the passing race. In this case, the spectators were intensely focused on the passing riders.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jerome Pugmire of The Associated Press reports that Lance Armstrong is going out of his way to connect with French fans during his last Tour de France. This effort has included:

• giving his cap to a couple with whom he spoke at a recent stage start,
• chatting with motorcycle camera men in the middle of stages,
• starting interviews with French media people in French,

Sammarye Lewis of Velogal confirms this in her blog article published today:

Lance spent an extraordinary amount of time signing autographs this morning. One adolescent girl was so thrilled that she was literally shaking. She was immediately on the phone telling someone about it… Just totally stoked. Everybody here wears their cell phones on lanyards around their necks. Me, too…

I had wondered why Lance has been shown talking to the camera so frequently during the less intense parts of recent stages. I've been watching the Tour since 1989 or 1990 and I've never seen any rider, let alone the leader of the G.C., talk to the camera in this manner.

The times that I've seen him talking to the camera on OLN he's been speaking English. It's possible that he's speaking French to the camera at times as well, or he may know which moto cameras belong to OLN and which ones belong to France Television and the ASO.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was apparent to me as Lance Armstrong fended off attack after attack in the Alps that he was the prohibitive favorite to wear the Yellow Jersey of the Tour de France all the way through to Paris. I began to think about the next move in Armstrong's athletic career, specifically about whether he could return to competing in triathlons at an elite level.

Lance refuted this notion in an interview he did Outside Magazine for their July 2005 issue:

Any idea of going back to triathlon?

No. Listen, I am going to do a triathlon, and it's called Luke, Grace, Isabelle. Those are the three; that's enough. My first priority is just to be there for my children as much as I can.

In spite of this seemingly definitive answer from Lance himself, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I asked Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen what they thought of the idea. I had the good fortune of being invited to participate in a Rest Day conference call arranged by OLN and here was what I asked:

Dave Aiello / OperationGadget.com: First of all, thanks for for doing this. It's a terrific opportunity for all of us who didn't make it to the Tour.

Do either of you think that Lance Armstrong will ever compete in an endurance sporting event covered by the media again in the future? I think the potential interest in his participation in something like Ironman Hawaii, both from a sponsorship and a viewership perspective, would be significant.

Liggett: I can only repeat what Lance said to me in September and what he also said at the press conference {at the Tour de Georgia} in April.... One thing's for certain, come Monday he will never race a bike as a professional bike rider again.

He will never go back on that decision. He said that's it. He said that you may see him in a local bike race somewhere deep in Texas for the sheer fun of it.... He's the sort of athlete ... that cannot come to the event half ready, half fit, and with the thought of just riding for the heck of it.

Therefore although he would have great ability and of course he has proven ability in triathlons, even at the Ironman distance, because he would immediately think of the preparation involved, of the regime that has to be lived, and... he can't go through all that again. It would be stepping back into a professional sport. So, I don't think he will.

I think he will do his charity rides because he can do those on one leg just for the fun of it, but he will never go back to a professional status again.

Sherwen: I agree with Phil on that. The thing about Lance Armstrong over the last seven years that we've always thought that because of the way he approaches his preparation for an event like this, one day or another he'd get up and say, "I don't want to do this anymore."

Not because it's physically demanding because physically I think he could race for a couple of more years. But I think his training is a lot more mentally demanding than any of us could ever imagine. When he comes to the Tour de France, his physical performance is probably a lot easier than when he's actually training.

Compound that with the fact that I think he misses his kids an awful lot. I think that's one of the major parts of his decision to stop doing the sport.

Keep in mind that he's been a pro athlete since about age 14 on the triathlon circuit. He's been at the top of the professional cycling sport for a long time.

I think it's a magnificent decision that he's made to ride the Tour de France one more time and to retire on the final day. That is instead of going on to riding a couple of exhibition events in, for example, in Holland where he goes nearly every year or in the United States. I think if he can retire on the 24th of July at the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France that would be the best retirement that I have ever seen in the sport of professional cycling.

I was one of many journalists who had the opportunity to participate in this press conference. I was really impressed with the consideration that Paul and Phil gave to each person's question, and their willingness to work through some technical difficulties that made the call a bit harder than it otherwise would have been.

It was a big thrill to be able to talk to them, and I sent several other questions to my contacts at OLN that I hope to get answered as well. If I hear anything further, I'll let you know.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, OLN, Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I haven't focused on stage results in covering the The Tour de France this year, but I wanted to salute George Hincapie who won his first ever Tour de France stage today at the summit of Pla d'Adet. As many others have said, he's the only rider on the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team who has ridden with Lance Armstrong through all six (and two-thirds) of his General Classification victories.

No rider in the pro peloton is more deserving of victory in an major stage of the Tour de France than George Hincapie. I remember cheering in front of the television the day that Tyler Hamilton won Stage 16 of the 2003 Tour in Bayonne because that was such an inspirational ride. Kathleen and I were both just as excited to see the George put his hands in the air in triumph today as he crossed the finish line.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, George Hincapie

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin Dugard has picked up on the antipathy that exists between Lance Armstrong and some of his American challengers. In a posting from today, Dugard said:

I’ve written quite a bit about the fractured relations between the American riders. But as the Tour marches on its merry way to Paris, the schism is widening.... Floyd Landis can’t seem to mention the Discovery Team without dropping an f-bomb before the word "Discovery"; Levi Leipheimer is tight-lipped about the American presence, preferring to say nothing rather than speak his mind; and, Lance Armstrong has precise opinions on each of them. Some of these feelings can be chalked up to gamesmanship. Some of them have to do with being highly competitive individuals competing for the same vaunted crown. But a lot has to do with the intense and personal nature of elite cycling. These guys have spent a lot of time in the saddle together. Sometimes they just get on each other’s nerves.

Take a look at Lance Armstrong's War and I think you'll agree that Lance is a master at using anger as a personal motivator and using anger against those riders who have trouble with their tempers. If Dugard is correct in his observation of Floyd Landis, I'd suggest that anger distracts Landis to a point where he loses his focus.

Consider the behavior of Lance Armstrong toward Floyd Landis at the finish of Stage 5 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia. I was there and I said at the time that, "Lance Armstrong finished strongly in third place, pointing defiantly down the hill, presumably at Floyd Landis who had been the overall race leader until today."

Team Discovery isolated Landis that day and made him respond personally to their attacks. Eventually Tom Danielson made a move that Floyd couldn't respond to. Lance marked Floyd without giving him any help to reintegrate with the leaders. At the last moment before the finish line, Lance rode away from Floyd, then pointed back at him before pointing at the clock above the finish line.

The animosity between Armstrong and Landis hadn't begun there. Landis had reportedly said "Discover this" within earshot of some DCPCT personnel after Landis won the Stage 3 Time Trial at Rome. I conclude that Lance Armstrong didn't get mad-- he got even, and Landis hasn't been able to up the ante.

If Floyd Landis is still in a state where he is letting Discovery's head games affect him to the extent that he is using the F-word as an intensifier, he's probably not as focused as he could be on leading Team Phonak in the Tour de France.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today I received an email from National Cinemedia announcing that Live. Loud. Large: Tour de France Stage 14 on the Big Screen will take place on Saturday, July 16, beginning at 8:30am Eastern Time. Tickets are $20 and will be available at the door or on-line at www.bigscreenraces.com.

This is the second annual airing of a Tour de France stage in high definition at a network of 52 movie theaters around the U.S. The high definition version of OLN's coverage of the stage will be shown. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Tyler Hamilton Foundation which benefits Multiple Sclerosis and youth cycling programs, and the Davis Phinney Foundation which focuses on Parkinson's Disease.

This event took place last year during Stage 13 and turn out was excellent. Many locations sold out. If you visit www.bigscreenraces.com you can search for a theater near where you live.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I woke up this morning to learn that Tom Boonen did not start Stage 12 earlier today. BBC Sports reported that Boonen was suffering from an effusion of the knee, resulting in 80 centiliters of blood being drained. A can of soda is 35.5 centiliters.

Boonen crashed a total of three times in this years Tour, with the last crash occurring on a dangerous stretch of the descent out of Courchevel early in Stage 11.

I wasn't really surprised to hear that Boonen didn't start. The really surprising news was that Manuel Beltran had to abandon today after crashing early in Stage 12.

Several reports indicated that Beltran had injured his knee in the crash, but his left knee had been wrapped for previous stages due to tendonitis. Johan Bruyneel said on OLN that Beltran had crashed due to a touch of wheels and he hit his head on the pavement. Bruyneel said that Beltran was forced to abandon by the team and race doctors because he had become disoriented.

Bruyneel went on to say that Beltran was evacuated to a hospital in Gap and that he will be kept overnight for observation.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin Durgand's posting after Stage 10 suggested that Lance Armstrong may have been motivated to smash the peloton on the way to Courchevel yesterday to send a message to Biarne Riis, Team CSC's Directeur Sportif. Durgand pointed out, "Last Tuesday Bjarne Riis of the CSC team went on record as saying Armstrong was lucky to be wearing the yellow jersey. Lucky? Armstrong is driven by quotes like that. They don’t cow him, they make him stronger."

Durgand probably has a point because after the finish yesterday, Armstrong said:

When someone says that a person who’s won the Tour de France six times is lucky to win the yellow jersey... that’s not respect. That’s not honest. That’s not true. That’s not reality. The riders on {Team CSC} are some of the classiest in cycling. We race the team, not the team directors. I saved that comment on the hard drive when I read it.

The question I had when I read this was, exactly what did Riis say that provoked this reaction? For an answer, I turned to an article written after the Stage 4 Team Time Trial by Suzanne Haliburton. Suzanne is a journalist from the Austin American-Statesman whom I met at the Dodge Tour de Georgia. Here's how Haliburton presented what Riis said:

"I think we should have won today, but once again, Armstrong was the lucky guy," said CSC team director Bjarne Riis. "Obviously, the crash was what made the difference today. I was confident that we could win today based on the previous time splits.

"Right now, it's hard to find anything positive at the moment, since this stage was one that we had really worked hard on. Everything went as it was supposed to until the very end."

I think Riis was trying to say that CSC would have won the Team Time Trial if Dave Zabriskie hadn't crashed, but he made the mistake of calling Armstrong "lucky" in the process. Should Riis have expected that Armstrong would have reacted the way he did? Playing off of the words and perceived slights from others is one of the ways that Lance has motivated himself in the past. [ Registration required to read articles from the Austin American-Statesman ]

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the questions I asked in the recent article Heart Rate Monitor Data Integrated into OLN Broadcasts was how is heart rate monitor data transmitted beyond the receiver on rider's bikes? The standard transmitters for most heart rate monitors have a range of about 2 meters (6 feet).

The other day Lennard Zinn of VeloNews answered this question for both SRM Training Systems and Polar Electro. Zinn was asked what Jens Voigt carried in his seat bag during Stage 9, and he responded:

That is the transmitter that sends telemetric data live from Voigt's SRM. And yes, some of the other Tour riders are doing the same thing. Voigt, Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile), Gerrit Glomser (Lampre) and Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) all have been wired for live SRM data on various stages.

Zinn says that data from SRM power meters is being shown on the ARD television network in Germany and the T-Mobile Team website.

He goes on to say that the Polar auxiliary transmitter is smaller than those being used by SRM. Polar's transmitters relay their data for use on OLN.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)