MUST READ the motivation behind the reasons why Chris Horner is not on the Astana team going to the Tour de France. It’s heart-breaking to read, especially because, you know how the story ends. Read it Here
Rodge
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Summer is back and so is the most prestigious bike race, The Tour de France.
Running from Saturday July 4th to Sunday July 26th 2009, the 96th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.
These 21 stages have the following profiles:
* 10 flat stages,
* 7 mountain stages,
* 1 medium mountain stage,
* 2 individual time-trial stages,
* 1 team time-trial stage.
Distinctive aspects of the race
* 3 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 55 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 20 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.
Mont Ventoux on the day before the Champs-Élysées. Never in the history of the event has a mountain been on the programme the day before the finish in Paris. This will be the case this year with the Ventoux mountain finish on the 20th stage.
YouTube Tour de France route video.
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An opportunity to see racing of this caliber on a course that is challenging but spectator-friendly environment. Here’s a report from the local Nevada City newspaper.
Relatively a short 3 hour drive from the Bay Area, and the first race doesn’t start until 1pm. The big guns start at 5pm and go for 90 minutes, a course with 3/4 up hill and 1/4 down.
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Nominated Dream bike of the year by Bicycling magazine
Javelin Cortina is a very expensive carbon fiber bike but very stiff and very light. Built with kevlar-impregnated corrugated honeycomb carbon fiber matrix for stiffness and lightness. Price: $16,000 with Sram Red components and Mavic wheels. Weight: 13.7 lbs. The frame weigh sub 850gram. Website: javbike.com.
Bicycling Magazine writes,
“At its best, a road ride feels like flying — fast, effortless and fluid. In this regard, Javelin’s Cortina is more like a set of wings than a wheeled vehicle. We were impressed by the bike’s ability to nearly levitate over choppy pavement and provide instant, powerful drivetrain response. The Cortina, designed in the United States and hand made in Italy, handled intuitively, with almost no gap between the rider’s intent and the bike’s movement.”
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Giro D’Italia – ROME, 31 May 2009
Denise Menchov has won the Centenary Giro d’Italia (92nd race): the 31-year old from Rabobank is the third Russian in history to win the Giro, after Berzin (1994) and Tonkov (1996). But this last stage of the Giro, a spectacular 14.4 kilometre individual time trial in the historic city centre of Rome (racing in the rain in the last part of the route), with a surprise win by the Lithuanian from Cervelo, Ignatas Konovalovas, was open right up to the end.
Danilo Di Luca, who started off with 20 seconds to recover, was gaining 5 seconds after 3.3 kilometres. But in the second lap, (after 7.7 km), Menchov proved the forecasters right: +15 on Di Luca and the race and the question seemed closed.
The last bit of excitement came at slightly less than one kilometre from the finish, when Menchov fell on a straight stretch of cobblestones. But he managed to get right back in the race, with a spare bike, and finish the trial in 19:06, 21 seconds better than Danilo Di Luca.
Look at the reaction of Menchov’s team mates in the Rabobank bus:
RANKINGS — Konovalovas finished the trial in 18:42, just 1 second better than the British racer Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) and 7 seconds ahead of the Norwegian Boasson Hagen (Columbia). The first Italian was Marzio Bruseghin, 5th with 18:58.
The general ranking was as follows: Menchov won the Giro (this is the 27th time a non-Italian has won) with a margin of 41 seconds on Danilo Di Luca (LPR-Farnese). Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Doimo) is also on the podium, third at +1:59. Fourth is Carlos Sastre (Spa, Cervelo) at +3:46; fifth is Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) at +3:59. Sixth is Levi Leipheimer (USA, Astana) at +5:28.
RSS feed from Italian Cycling Journal
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