Today Landis was on Talk of the Nation on NPR. They talked about his case and the doping controls and the Tour de France. Most interestingly, they took questions from callers, and one caller named Gord called in. I'm pretty sure it was Canadian Gord Fraser, retired pro cyclist for Mercury but they never said this is Gord Fraser although he did say he rode for Mercury and had been a former teammate. Gord said that he had always raced clean but he knew of another pro who was caught for EPO and that guy admitted it. Fraser said that they respected the fact that he admitted it took his penalty and nobody had a problem with it after that. He went on to suggest that Landis was such a guy who would be honest about it if he got caught and then asked Landis how he felt about that. Landis responded by thanking him as if it were an endorsment. I thought it was an odd call and strange the way the question was put.
I found pictures of Landis on Fraser's '06 cycling camp website HERE Landis is in the green and yellow Phonak kit. A team that no longer exists due to the whole ordeal.
As far as the Tour goes Cancellara is in 1rst. Kloden is in 3rd :33 back Hincapie is in 5th :43 back. Vinokourov is in 12th :50 back And Leipheimer is in 34th at 1:00 back. These times are a direct result of the opening time trial results. I can't see how this puts Leipheimer in a great position. It's not out of reach yet for him yet but he can't afford to be loosing time in the Time Trials.
I've always thougth Kloden is the one to watch but he's in kind of a tough spot with Vinokourov. Kloden was free to do his own thing in the opening time trial. But in the mountains he may not be so free. The first mountains will really sort things out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm sorry; are those times in minutes or seconds? Because if Leipheimer is an hour behind everyone else it definitely doesn't bode well for him!
I guess the real questions on the NPR interviews are: Do you think Landis knew it was probably Gord Fraser? Doesn't NPR screen its' calls? If so, do you think it was a set-up quesetion?
Things are looking up for Leipheimer and Discovery as he is only 1 minute down today and up in to 22nd position. Hincapie is in 4th.
The times are in minutes. If you get more than 10 minutes down on the leaders time in the race it becomes really hard to catch back up. That was what was so amazing about Landis' one day comeback last year. He brought back something like 9 minutes.
Lots of riders will be an hour down at the end of the tour.
Both Kloden and Vinokourov crashed today with Vino loosing a bunch of time plus he skinned up both of his knees and his hip. Might have broken some bones. Kloden might have broken his tail bone. But he didn't loose any time today. Vinokourov lost 1:20 or something and fell down into 81rst position.
It's not looking good for them right now as they were both in the hospital after the stage today.
It's good luck for Leipheimer and Hincapie on Discovery. Both could go on the attack in the mountains this weekend and one of them could end up in yellow. If they do that then they will have it tough to defend the jersey for two weeks. So they might hold back. But Hincapie might try to get into the yellow.
I think Kloden will stay in the race but Vinokourov might be out.
I have to add, it really hurts to fall off of a bike on the pavement. I always forget just how much that hurts and how hard it can be to ride a bike the next day.
Falling is never fun I think.
Post a Comment