Friday, July 23, 2004
TDF 2004 Stage 18 The Wrath of Le Patron
This would have been a rather routine and typical "easy" stage except for one bizarre incident. There has been an ongoing feud between Filippo Simeoni and Lance Armstrong. Filippo is sueing Armstrong for defamation because Armstrong called Filippo a "liar" for testifying that Dr. Ferrari was actively showing riders how to effectively use the banned drug, EPO.
The race was going according to the usual early race selection process. Riders would attack and try to break away from the main peloton to try for the stage win. Since the GC contenders are all taking the day as a rest day before tomorrow's big time trial, the "right" group of riders must be allowed to form a successful breakaway. These riders must all be significantly out of contention to the major players in order to be "allowed". A group of six was finally selected and they began to build up a good sized gap from the main group. Usually, when this happens, the main peloton settles down into a "club ride" pace, fast, but relaxed with no real attacking going on. The team of the GC leader usually rides tempo at the front of the peloton to keep things in line. Basically, nobody does anything without the permission of "Le Patron" (the Patron, Lance Armstrong, the race leader) and his team.
Now, if a GC contender and/or his team decides to attack the peloton, one of the USPS domestiques (workers) would lead the chase to bridge the gap and neutralize the attack. What happened today was utterly bizarre. Filippo Simeoni decided that he wanted to join the lead breakaway group, so he attacked the peloton about midway through the stage. Since Simeoni was way, way down in the GC and not a threat to anybody, nobody would have cared and he would have been allowed to join the lead group. When Simeoni jumped ahead, none other than Armstrong himself jumped onto Simeoni's wheel and went along with him! Armstrong was not going to let Simeoni have any glory whatsoever. So now, Armstrong and Simeoni were actually taking turns driving the lead group!
This caused all sorts of confusion and anxiety in the main peloton as teams were now deciding what to do about it. They couldn't let Armstrong extend his lead more, they were obligated to chase down the breakaway.
Basically, the breakway would have been doomed if Armstrong stayed in it. Already, T-Mobile was beginning to spool up their efforts by going to the front of the peloton to lead the chase. T-Mobile had the 3rd and 4th placed GC riders (Kloden and Ullrich).
Apparently, the riders of the original breakaway asked Simeoni to drop back. When he did, Armstrong also dropped back to the peloton, thus restoring order to the race.
In the end, none of the main standings were affected, and the stage was won by Spaniard Juan Mercado, his first TDF stage win.
Thanks for reading.
Warren
The race was going according to the usual early race selection process. Riders would attack and try to break away from the main peloton to try for the stage win. Since the GC contenders are all taking the day as a rest day before tomorrow's big time trial, the "right" group of riders must be allowed to form a successful breakaway. These riders must all be significantly out of contention to the major players in order to be "allowed". A group of six was finally selected and they began to build up a good sized gap from the main group. Usually, when this happens, the main peloton settles down into a "club ride" pace, fast, but relaxed with no real attacking going on. The team of the GC leader usually rides tempo at the front of the peloton to keep things in line. Basically, nobody does anything without the permission of "Le Patron" (the Patron, Lance Armstrong, the race leader) and his team.
Now, if a GC contender and/or his team decides to attack the peloton, one of the USPS domestiques (workers) would lead the chase to bridge the gap and neutralize the attack. What happened today was utterly bizarre. Filippo Simeoni decided that he wanted to join the lead breakaway group, so he attacked the peloton about midway through the stage. Since Simeoni was way, way down in the GC and not a threat to anybody, nobody would have cared and he would have been allowed to join the lead group. When Simeoni jumped ahead, none other than Armstrong himself jumped onto Simeoni's wheel and went along with him! Armstrong was not going to let Simeoni have any glory whatsoever. So now, Armstrong and Simeoni were actually taking turns driving the lead group!
This caused all sorts of confusion and anxiety in the main peloton as teams were now deciding what to do about it. They couldn't let Armstrong extend his lead more, they were obligated to chase down the breakaway.
Basically, the breakway would have been doomed if Armstrong stayed in it. Already, T-Mobile was beginning to spool up their efforts by going to the front of the peloton to lead the chase. T-Mobile had the 3rd and 4th placed GC riders (Kloden and Ullrich).
Apparently, the riders of the original breakaway asked Simeoni to drop back. When he did, Armstrong also dropped back to the peloton, thus restoring order to the race.
In the end, none of the main standings were affected, and the stage was won by Spaniard Juan Mercado, his first TDF stage win.
Thanks for reading.
Warren
# posted by Warren T. : 11:34 AM
