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Tour News for July 15

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Stuart O' Grady (Credit Agricole, Maillot Jaune)

Stuart O'Grady
Photo: © Sirotti

"The weather was very cold. That was one exceptionally hard day, but everyone worked well within the team. The plan was just to follow the break. We've got the yellow, so make sure we were represented. It's been a very good strategy, good team tactics."

Will you defend it? "We'll think about it later."

Erik Dekker (Rabobank, 1st stage)

Erik Dekker
Photo: © Sirotti

It was cold, raining but when you are in the break it's better than the peloton because it's half an hour shorter. Also, when you are going for the win it's a bit better. There's one thing for sure. It's flat, it's raining and a lot of guys don't like it. It looks long, but when you have the motivation and the morale it's OK."

"Last year, I won three stages in the Tour. It is obvious that at the beginning, I had pressure on me. Fortunately, the victory of Wauters in Antwerp freed us. Last year was amazing and I have to say if you asked me two days ago if I could win a stage, I would have said 'maybe the last week'...My legs are changing in the last couple of days, and it feels very nice."

"It's the result of some very fast racing in the first week. In the beginning Vinokourov was with us, but fortunately he punctured, otherwise US Postal and ONCE would have chased."

On Marc Wauters: "We did a lot of things together in the last few years. I helped him with a stage win in Antwerp...Two against four is pretty good."

Aitor Gonzalez (Kelme, 2nd stage)

Aitor Gonzalez
Photo: © Sirotti

"I was strongest of the four. I made all the efforts to come back. I rolled steadily to avoid being surprised by Rabobank. I encountered a strong team, but I am nevertheless content with my race."

François Simon (Bonjour, 12th stage, 2nd GC)

"I think that it is the break of the Tour. We were lucky because of the puncture of Vinokourov at the beginning. I really did not expect to be 2nd. I have small thoughts for the day of Alpe d' Huez and, why not, take the yellow jersey there. It is said that when one is away, one is never cold... I am not able to get warm. Since the finish, I am frozen."

Jacky Durand (Francaise des Jeux, 7th stage)

"The time gaps are rather impressive. As soon as I saw Vinokourov puncturing, I was convinced that the break would work. I will move up about fifty places in the classification. I will not be lanterne rouge in Paris. But, I tried hard on the stage."

"With 25 kilometres to go, I tried to attack with Rabobank. I hoped that behind, people would look at each other. They rode. That was fatal to me. My tactic was good but fate happened differently. At the finish, I had courage left, but no legs."

Andrei Kivilev (Cofidis, 13th stage, 4th GC)

"The Tour is not finished yet. On the contrary it has started again. I will see in Alpe d' Huez, but also and especially in the Pyrenees where the roads are narrower and broken. I have redeemed myself. That will give pleasure to François Migraine who was very dissatisfied."

Bernard Quilfen (Cofidis directeur sportif)

"Kivilev can from now on finish 4th in the general classification. After the catastrophe of Verdun, we had the resources to bounce back. Andrei had been told in the morning to go with the attack. Everyone plays poker in this Tour. The race is currently up in the air. There is not a team able to ride for a hundred kilometres."

Rudy Pevenage (Telekom directeur sportif)

"We had a strange day, taking into account the decision of the group to let the escape go. But, the advantage of the group is not mortal. Riders such as Kivilev can however hope to finish in the first ten."

Lance Armstrong (US Postal, 51st stage)

"The stage was very difficult because of the rain and the cold. The real race will start in two days, when we come to the mountains. The fall at the beginning of the stage stopped us and we lost time. The team stayed behind whereas the others attacked. I remain confident."

Stage 8 - Full results & report
Stage 8 - As it happened

Winner's bio: Erik Dekker

Knaven and Dekker
Photo: © AFP

Stage winner Erik Dekker is no stranger to the Tour podium, having won three stages in 2000. This year, he didn't expect to repeat that feat, as his big goal remains the World Cup. However, today's result came from some smart riding from the Rabo boys, who had placed three men in the fourteen man break. At the finish, it was four on two, with Dekker and Wauters taking turns in attacking the very strong Aitor Gonzalez and Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven. It came to a sprint, which Dekker won comfortably.

For tax reasons, the Dutch rider lives in Antwerp, Belgium, in the same suburb of Merle as breakaway companion Knaven. He lives with his wife Petra, and two boys Kelvin (6) and David (3).

Dekker started winning races young, racking up over 100 wins between when he was 8 and 14 years old. He won the silver medal in the Barcelona Olympics behind the now tragically deceased Italian Fabio Casartelli, but had to wait several years in the pro ranks before he realised his talent. Last years wins in the Tour were followed by the San Sebastian classic and the Ronde van Nederland.

He is nearly 31 (August 21), and has ridden professionally for Jan Raas throughout his career (Buckler, WordPerfect, Novell, and Rabobank).

Kivilev's chances

By Jeff Jones

There is still a long way to go until Paris, but after today's stage, many people were talking about Kazakh Andrei Kivilev as a real yellow jersey threat. The Cofidis rider lost 18 minutes in a disastrous march into Verdun, where the entire team looked to be Hors de Combat. But today, Kivilev regained that deficit nearly twice over, finishing 33'14 in front of Armstrong, Ullrich, Beloki, Moreau, and any other pre-race favourite you care to mention.

Currently he is 4th on GC, 22'07 behind O'Grady (who will not give up the yellow without a fight) and 13'12 ahead of Lance Armstrong, who could be considered a benchmark in the Tour. Can Kivilev hold his lead through five tough mountain stages, or will he lose everything as quickly as he gained it?

A look at his results in last year's Tour de France shows that he finished 32nd at 1'17'28 to Armstrong. Last year he rode for Vincent Lavenu's Ag2r-Prevoyance team, and Lavenu told Cyclingnews that he knew the Kazakh was a promising rider, be couldn't afford to keep him in 2001. He thinks Kivilev can finish in the "top five or top ten, but his time trialling is a weakness."

Lucien van Impe, the last Belgian to win the Tour de France (1976) told Cyclingnews that he thinks Kivilev has a real chance, and the top teams took a big risk today in letting him go.

This year, his most important results have been in the Dauphine Libere, where he finished 5th overall (3'57 behind Moreau) and won one of the tougher mountain stages. More recently, he won the Route du Sud, when he successfully held Casagrande's wheel on the final climb of the last stage. Overall he beat good stage racers like Casagrande and Rumsas, and came into this Tour, along with Daniel Atienza, with high hopes for the GC.

If everything goes according to plan tomorrow from Pontarlier to Aix-les-Bains, i.e. a bunch sprint to keep the punters happy, the battle on stage 10 (Aix-les-Bains to Alpe d'Huez) will be fascinating. Kivilev is a climber, and although he is not in the league of the best mountain men, this result could give him the legs and morale to try. It is possible that O'Grady or Bonjour's Francois Simon (2nd GC) will still be in yellow on Tuesday, depending on how they fare on the Madeleine, Glandon, and Alpe d'Huez.

It's probably best to leave any further projection until after the stage 11 mountain time trial, as this Tour has been anything but predictable so far. He may be the one to put the Cyclingnews Megabike team on the podium (doubtful).

Txema del Olmo positive

Euskaltel-Euskadi has suffered another blow during this year's Tour de France, with climber Txema del Olmo returning a positive "A" sample for an "unnamed substance". The test was taken on the first day of the Tour at the prologue in Dunkirk, and Cyclingnews observed Del Olmo being ushered by his team manager through the crowds towards the medical control with a very distressed look on his face. At the time, it was put down to nerves, but this morning's news puts it in a different light.

Del Olmo did not start stage 7 from Strasbourg to Colmar, with "sickness" being given as the reason. After it became official that it was a "non-negative" doping control, he was withdrawn from the race by his team in accordance with race rules. He has returned home to await the results of his "B" sample.

Del Olmo is 28 years old, and his most notable victory is a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir in 1998, the year that he turned pro with Euskaltel. He was lying in 87th position, 20 minutes down on GC before stage 7.

Del Olmo's positive test puts Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc in an awkward position, as he threatened entire teams with exclusion should one of their riders fail a doping control.

Mad driver put in psychiatric car

The driver of a car which yesterday rammed the barricades near the finish line, injuring ten people, has been placed in a psychiatric hospital in Alsace. According to police, the 50 year old man has suffered from manic-depression for a long time, and he was considered "dangerous to himself and to others."

He will "probably not be charged" over the incident, due to his mental state, but this will be decided in the next few days. According to witnesses, the reason for his action was to see Laurent Jalabert at the finish. A legal source said that the man "heard voices that told him to go and kiss Jalabert".

He was turned away by police at first, but returned in a car, driving through three sets of barriers. TV images showed the man's car hitting the barriers head-on, and a woman in his way was knocked several metres into the air.

Fortunately, neither she nor the other three hit by the car were critically hurt. "The news is more reassuring," said race doctor Gerard Porte. "The lady had a scan which showed a fracture of the skull in the frontal region, without cerebral damage. There were no neurological complications during the night."

One other person is still in hospital in Colmar, and will have an operation tonight after he fractured his right knee. All others wounded in the incident have left hospital.

Millar tired

Anxious moments for Millar
Photo: © Sirotti

Current Lanterne Rouge in the Tour, David Millar (Cofidis) has struggled every day since his crash in the prologue removed any chances of gaining the yellow. He is currently last on GC at 1.57.25, and there is still a long way to go until Paris. To his credit, he has hung in there as others have abandoned, but confesses that he is tired.

"I am too weak," he said. "I live this Tour, not from day to day, but hour to hour. I never know at 1300 hrs if I will be still in the race at 1400 hrs".

Vandevelde goes home

Christian Vandevelde has flown home to the United States after his crash and subsequent abandonment during stage 7 yesterday. The US Postal rider is the first rider from Lance Armstrong's team to pull out of this year's Tour. He is suffering from a fractured left radius with dislocation which has been put in plaster, according to the official medical communiqué. During the first few stages, he had fallen off several times, notably during the team time trial on stage 5 when Roberto Heras also came down.

Elimination rules

Did we make it?
Photo: © Sirotti

With such a large time gap between the winners and the main peloton today (nearly 36 minutes in a 5 hour, flat stage), there were musings that the entire peloton would be eliminated for exceeding the time limit. This difference is supposedly a record in post-war Tours de France, and it had a lot of people scratching their heads and reaching for the rule books today. According the normal Tour de France rules:

"In stages presenting no particular difficulty, the finishing deadline is equal to the winner’s real time plus:

4% thereof if the average speed per kilometre is no more than 34 km/h
5% thereof if it is between 34 km/h and 36 km/h
6% thereof if it is between 36 km/h and 38 km/h
7% thereof if it is between 38 km/h and 40 km/h
8% thereof if it is between 40 km/h and 42 km/h
9% thereof if it is between 42 km/h and 44 km/h
10% thereof if it is between 44 km/h and 46 km/h"

In this case, the average speed was over 44 km/h, therefore the cutoff time should have been 10 percent of 4 hours 59 minutes 18 seconds, which works out at slightly under 30 minutes. Of course, this would lead to a ridiculous situation, whereby all but 15 riders would be left in the Tour. Note: only 11 finish in 1919!

Fortunately, there is another rule that can override the first:

"By agreement with the race management, the commissaires' panel may alter deadlines to take into account exceptional occurrences (weather conditions, road blocks, accident or serious incident, etc.).

If the percentage of eliminated riders exceeds 20% of the participants, the coefficient may be raised by a decision of the commissaires’ panel in agreement with the race director. Obviously, all riders finishing in the new deadline remain qualified for the following stages. Such a decision is exceptional and will under no circumstances set a precedent."

Strasbourg bids to host more stages

The city of Strasbourg, which saw the finish of stage 7 and the stage of stage 8, wants to host the beginning of the Tour in 2006. The mayor of the city, Fabienne Keller announced this today, and race director Jean-Marie Leblanc, "took note" of the bid.

Strasbourg will host a stage of the Giro d'Italia next year on May 15, previously having done so in 1973. The Giro will start in Groningen (Netherlands), head towards Munster (Germany), Liege (Belgium), Esch (Luxembourg) and Strasbourg.

Official communiqués

Weather
Fresh, wet and unstable at times. Cloudy sky with occasional sunny breaks. A weak wind. Temperature: 12-20 degrees.

Medical
Luis Perez (Festina): Pain in the right shoulder
Daniel Atienza (Cofidis): Wound in the right knee and hip
Anthony Morin (Credit Agricole): Pain in the knee
David Etxebarria (Euskaltel): Pain in the right hip
Sebastian Demarbaix (Ag2r): Digestive disorders
Christophe Capelle (BigMat): Wounds in the left leg
Loïc Lamouller (BigMat): Pain in the left knee

Commissaires decisions
Pursuant to article 22 of rules particular to the Tour, because of the general average speed of the stage (44.604 km/h), the jury decided to extend the elimination time to 13 percent, i.e. 5'38'13.

Consequently, all the riders who finished within this new time are authorized to start the 9th stage. Ludovic Auger (BigMat) is credited with the same time as the group. The correction will be made in the general classification after the 9th stage.

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