Five moments from the first week worth watching again on video (for as long as the Youtube powers will let us). You’ll notice that a few are about jury decisions, which I talked about in my post yesterday.
Stage 1: no, not that crash
OK, we’ve all been talking about the crash with 8km to go that took Contador down (It’s actually right at the start of this clip. But to me the more significant one happens at exactly 8mins of this video.
There is a crash with 2km to go, there are many favorites in it but in the end they are all given the same time as the group they crashed out of. The 3km rule you say? That rule explicitly does not apply to uphill finishes, and stage 1 was exactly that since there was a point for the polka dot jersey at the top. While it’s true that the climb hadn’t started yet when the crash occurred, there’s nothing about that in the rules and hence not relevant. [turns out I was wrong about this, see the correction here]
The Video starts with Contador crash, the 2km crash is at 7min57.
Stage 3: Thor rounds the final corner
David Millar (@millarmind) tweeted about this: “Thor-inspiring = Blind corner at 600m to go. We’re at limit on inside, Thor barrels round outside and takes over.”
Stage 3: Thor and Cav dance
Much ado about nothing, but 10 points in the green jersey competition gone thanks to the intermediate sprint that saw Thor and Cav getting disqualified for questionable reasons.
- Thor “deviates” from his line? The road bends to the left and EVERY rider in the video deviates from his line. Thor moves over about half as much as the two riders in front of him, so they should have been doubly DQ’d? It’s true that the two in front of him don’t have another rider next to them while Thor has Cav there, but I do not believe that makes any difference for the “keep your line” rule.
- Cav’s “headbutt”. You may know that I have little patience for headbutts and thought Renshaw’s DQ was justified last year. But this is a lean, not a headbutt. If Cav leans with his shoulder (as he is supposed to do), he leans into air. To lean against Thor’s shoulder (as he clearly had to do to stay upright and out of the barriers), he can only use his head. Next time he’ll have to wear some ginormous shoulder pads.
Stage 4: Feillu drafting off the car
Everybody knows that when a rider comes back through the caravan, he hops from car to car to catch a draft. But having your own team car drop back to pull you all the way back, while you’re giving the driver hand signals to dial in the exact speed, that takes it to another level.
Stage 5: Motorbike takes bicycle with him
What is there to say, just watch the various crashes of that stage here.
Bonus: Cavendish interview before stage 4
I already wrote about it, but it’s much funnier when you see his expression (plus my transcript was not very good as I did it from memory hours later and missed half the words to begin with due to my bad internet connection.
What’s been your most remarkable moment in the Tour so far? Let me know in the comments or via twitter @gerardvroomen.
gerard.cc 
July 8, 2011 at 12:21
Thanks for sharing!
My best moment would have to be the win in stage 2 by Team Garmin-Cervelo. True team spirit!
July 8, 2011 at 13:01
Obviously I won’t argue with you there!
July 8, 2011 at 12:26
Direct link for the last Cav video – http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1059272
July 8, 2011 at 12:59
Thanks! That was a bit of an error on my side, now updated.
July 8, 2011 at 13:02
I find this video particularly funny / endearing.
July 8, 2011 at 13:20
Yep, that is cool. Norwegians are stoic people, right?
July 8, 2011 at 17:26
I have to say the most annoying video is watching several replay’s of Contador tossing his bike to the side of the road.
I don’t like how the media replay’s negative stuff.
My favorite is Farrar winning stage 3. It was an exciting, edge of the seat, win.
July 8, 2011 at 18:13
Another one I can’t argue with!!
July 9, 2011 at 02:28
I find it annoying that some guys have such a lack of respect for their equipment and the mechanics who work on it that they throw or drop their bikes. Would you toss your $6000+ bike on the ground like that? It shows arrogance and lack of respect. And it cannot be excused by saying that they are just angry or upset because of a crash or something. We get annoyed at work too, and generally we don’t pick up our PC and throw it across the room. It’s childish behaviour that reminds me of football (soccer) players.
July 9, 2011 at 02:59
Wisey17,
I agree with you about it being disrespectful. They are professionals and need to act like it, especially when cameras are on them.
July 9, 2011 at 09:27
Yes, it seems to be more common now. And you make a good point, not only is it disrespectful towards the sponsor who pays part of your friggin salary, it’s also a slap in the face of your mechanic.
July 8, 2011 at 18:36
Stage 1: Not sure I understand. Are you saying the favorites who crashed in that group (Shleck) should have lost as much (or almost as much) time as Contador?
July 8, 2011 at 23:25
I am saying that ALL riders should have received the time they truly had when they crossed the line. Nobody should have been given the time of the winner unless they crossed the line with the winner, because the 3km rule should not apply to this stage. You crash, you flat inside 3km, tough luck. That’s the rule.
July 9, 2011 at 02:36
Agree 100%. UCI need to work on (a) educating their people, and (b) increasing consistency in the way in which the rules are applied.
July 9, 2011 at 06:42
To be fair you have to know that the tdf rulebook explicitly lists all stages that are considered mountain top finish with 3km rule. And stage 1 wasn’t in that list.
July 9, 2011 at 09:26
Good point, my bad
July 9, 2011 at 12:44
I think Alberto got the worst deal of the first day actually. He chased back to 40 sec behind at the bottom of the climb.
With his capabilities he probably would have made up some more time on the climb but instead got held up by the new crash. So he is the (only?) one who actually lost time from the crash in last 3k.
But at least that will keep the race outcome a little bit more unpredictable…
July 8, 2011 at 21:20
How about Thor Hushovd giving his all to stay with the front group at the end of stage 5? Oh, and thanks Gerard for drawing our attention to that Hushovd flyer that lead to the lead out. Truly astonishing!!!
July 8, 2011 at 23:33
Stage 5? The first stage Cav won? Or do you mean stage 4, won by Evans on the Mur de Bretagne? That was definitely impressive by Thor, to stay with the GC guys on that climb. It may be my favorite moment, but I also figured people had all seen that already over and over. But good call.
July 9, 2011 at 14:01
Oops! Hushovd on the climb on stage 4 of course. And the flyer before Ty won.
Sad moment a few days ago when Kiryenka was “late” and abandoned. He’s such a stud in every race he shows up at. Apparently he’d done too much good racing in the first half of the season.
July 9, 2011 at 02:33
Cav’s response in the Sporza interview echos a story about the Nobel winning physicist Dirac,
‘During a lecture at the University of Wisconsin, Dirac asked the room whether there were any questions. An audience member called out: “I don’t understand the equation on the top-right-hand corner of the blackboard.” Minutes passed, while Dirac stood impassively. When prompted by the discomfited moderator for a reply, Dirac stated: “That was not a question, it was a comment.”’