= Tour Commentator
...
and then the duck says to the bartender.... Oh hi race fans and welcome to this
week's race, The Hill Climb. This week the Tour leaves the lower hills and gets
right into the mountains. Ok not really but the climbs to get tougher then what
they have been. So far we have seen nothing over an 8% grade, on this stage
however our riders face not just one but two climbs that have a max of 12%
grades in them. That's got to slow people down trying to climb that. The overall
course is only 4.2 miles long however 2.7 miles of that is climbing at an average of
6.75% which will be a change from the flatlands we around here are use to. The
last time this course was used was in 2004, the average speed back then was only
12.17 mph. We don't expect that the speed will be much over that this year
in fact if anything I would expect it to be just a little slower (no real reason
for that, its just a feeling). The riders are starting to line up and are about
to roll out for the start, before that happens come with me back to last
week and the Team Time Trial.
Last week, in sharp contrast
to this week, was flat! Very flat with 5.5 miles of the 7.4 mile course
perfectly flat and the last 1.9 miles on a 1% down slope. Last week was very
fast and the fastest team was the American Flyers. Team Captain Clark Griffin
lead his team to victory but more importantly the win helped extend the lead of
Ron Moore. Ron(AmF) went into the race with a 6 second advantage over the Big
Ring Wraith's Francis Manfred, at the end of the day Ron had extended that to 1:13. This
should make all the Flyers fans very happy and Geana Moore very proud of her
husband. Once again we saw some changes in the GC , the top two stayed the
same but 3rd changed hands as Ryan Hulce was able to pass by Roxane Burrous(now
in 4th) as he continues to inch his way up the ladder. I am sure he would
like to at least stay on the podium until the end of the tour, a 3rd place finish
would be a slight improvement over last year's 4th place finish he had as a
tour rookie. Interesting note is that last year Ryan was on the American
Flyers team with Ron Moore, this year however he is with the newly formed Flying
Squirrels team(with 3 tour rookies). Not sure if the move was to get with a team
that was willing to focus more on his chances then what the Flyers were willing
to do last yeae or if it just happened that way. Ryan is not alone near the top
of the GC for fellow Squirrel Mark "The Badger" Bettinger is still in 5th place.
The
American Flyers also have taken over the Team GC. Wow, must be a party over there at
the AmF camp. They won the stage, took over the Team GC and have a rider sitting
1st in the GC. They, the American Flyers, won the team event last year so the
question is can they do it again? With 3 more races left it is hard to say, but
this team looks to be getting stronger every ride.
Once again this week we were
blessed with the thoughts of "the observer of the tour" on the BABC
message board. Here what the Observer had to say about last week and this week.
OBSERVER OF THE
TOUR: "Well it looks
like I was right, the American Flyers are dominating the tour again and the
Moose are just drooling. The first Mountain stage is coming up and this stage
could really shake things up. I think this will be the team order of finish for
the Hill Climb:
1. BRW
2. AF
3. TL
4. FS
5. KCF
6. MM
The Tour lead will remain with Ron, but I think the stage win will go to either
Shawn or Larry.
I'm going outside for a ride where it's a nice 71 degrees. If you need to know
how all this is going to play out, I can let you know, but why spoil it. "
Thank you Observer of the Tour for that insist to the
tour, I think you have a handle on things but never forget this is the TdS and
it is full of surprises. One can not ever be sure on how things are going to go
down. I myself have been sure that Francis would win the tour the last 3 years
and it has yet to happen. As for the winner of this stage I think you are
wrong, I do not think that either Larry or Shawn will take the stage, I believe
that it will be one of the lesser known riders or rookies. Say like Tom McMahan
or Cory "the Mule" Jackson, someone that no one is watching much. They have a
better chance of slipping off the front and getting away. On a side note, Larry
B won the Hill Climb last year which set him up for the overall win in the Tour.
And Francis took 2nd with Clark 3rd on this stage last year. It was also that
way in the GC after this stage in 2007 (Larry 1st, Francis 2nd and Clark 3rd:
which is how the tour ended that year).
This just in... Ron
Moore is reported to be ill along with Ryan Hulce . Both men are said to have
high temps and general ickiness. This information means, that if they may not be
able to ride at the top level for this race. These illnesses may result in
a big change in the tour standings. Anyhow, both are under the weather at
the first of the week and will ride on Saturday (Ryan's normal time) which
hopefully will give the chance to recover. Being ill like this can
lessen their chances for a good race (in most cases). Tom Linn is also being
reported by team doctors as "under the weather". That make
two members of the AmF that are in less then perfect health. Cory Jackson, also
of the American Flyers has also rescheduled and is rumored to be a bit sick.
That would make 3 of the 4 members of that team in less than perfect health for
this stage. Could this cause
the Flyers a problem? Can another team take advantage of this situation?
The Squirrels are likely the ones to have to best chance to capitalize here, but
they have a rider ill too. Ok just too many variables here so we'll just have to
wait and see. Back to the race...
Twenty-four riders came to the line today
which means we have no riders abandon the race. It really has
not happened a lot in the history of tour, in fact I can only think of 3 times
over the 4 years so far that a rider has has not finished the race. I think it
was 2006 when Jeff Bell abandoned do to illness and in 2005 (I believe) Lee Flasche had to stop just before the last stage.
Cracked or broken
ribs from a fall while walking his dog was the cause for his abandoning the race.
Not Last year (2007) Troy Clear had to leave after stage 3 but was replaced by
Dean Dahlquist for the rest of the tour. Troy abandoned because of moving
to a different state. I think that is a good record or
at least good enough. So with all of our racers showing up for the start of the
race let's get them underway. GO!!! And look at them go, the first half
mile today is flat then they have an half mile climb ending at 12%, so the speed
we are seeing right now is going to come to a crawl very soon. Looks like things
are coming to a head, as they say, as the riders hit the first climb. Francis is
out front with Ron Moore just behind him, but here comes Andrew Maibaum, Charlie
Skoog and Tom
McMahan making a charge on the lower steps of this climb. It is early on the
climb and in the race for an attack but looks like a few will be trying it
already, there is a small group forming, we'll try to get who all is there. They
are going hard as they get to the midsection of the hill and they are getting a
small gap on the main field. Looks like Tom M(FS), Andrew (TL), Larry
(KCF),
MTR(KCF), Charlie (TL) and Clark(AmF) off the front and hitting the 12%. Ouch that has to hurt as they
try to keep the speed up. The small escape group is stringing itself out
as Tom McMahan starts to out distance the rest and they struggle to match his
pace, one has to wonder if he has enough for the rest of the race or if this
show of strength will be his own downfall. He may have been sent on the attack
by his team to see if Ron will react to early attacks. I don't think Ron will be
too worried about a rider like Tom M. who is over 4 minutes down in the GC.
However the American Flyers do have Clark Griffin up there with Tom just to make
sure . We
will try to get some times later. Tom , Clark and Andrew are over the first hill
and have continued along their merry way. It looks like this first hill has not
stopped any of the racers as everyone cheerfully topped the summit. Walt Kosiak
seems to be having a bad day as he is off the back of the race, we will try to
find out if the is problem with his bike, him or what is going on. If it is just a
bad ride for him it maybe a really bad ride with lots of suffering.
Tom M(FS) has continued to extend his lead on the chase group as he tops the hill at the 2.2 mile mark with a time of 6:48 thats over 19 mph average so far. Going to be hard to keep a pace like that up on these hills. Next to get to the summit is Clark @7:03 then Charlie (TL)@7:05 and Andrew @7:07. There is a chase group forming a bit behind consisting of Markus(MM) , Stephen Sehr(FS), Larry(KCF) , Rick(KCF), Mitch(TL) and MTR(KCF) coming over the top at about 7:20. The Blue train of KCF is working well together today keeping to the pace up.
The next climb is the big one, 8/10th of a mile long (that is a long hill here in central Indiana) with 2/10ths of it being 12% (you don't find that in central Indiana). So this is one of the toughest climbs that most of these guys have seen in a while. Should really be fun to see how they take it. "YOU SUCK MIKE !": Quote from Todd Brandenburg as he road up a 12% grade. "Mike this Sucks" : Quote from another rider (I don't recall who at the moment) on the 12%. "My Spleen, My Spleen! I think I just lost my Spleen" :Quote that I just made up. It does sum up some of the looks I saw on the face of Larry as he tackled or I should say was clobbered on this climb. Speaking of tackling, what was with the Pats in the SuperBowl? How did they let Eli out of a scrum like that? Who taught these guys how to tackle, the Colts? If you get hold of a QB like that, take the man down, geees. Good job by the Giants however, was nice to see back to back Manning Superbowl wins. Even if it was two different Mannings. This just in: "GET BACK TO THE RACE AT HAND, NUMB NUTS!!!" hmm, OK I was just .. whatever. While I was carrying on Tom McMahan has continued his attack and it is looking like another "wunder ride" like we had with Ryan Hulce on the Stairway. So I am sure there will be another series of tabloid "Drug scandal" articles and accusations. That is if Tom keeps this pace up. One can see that Tom is pushing very hard up this last section of our big climb. Gallons of sweat are pouring off his face and we can see his chest heaving as he gasps for air. Can we get a mop over here? He looks back, Clark and Andrew are there Tom however Charlie Skoog is not, he must have dropped off somewhere. They look like they may be ready to crack, the team car comes up next to Tom and he takes a couple of fresh bottles as he empties the other ones over his back. Not really that hot out so he maybe putting on a bit of a show. Tom crests the hill at @10:27 with Clark and Andrew close behind still marking him. Tom slips back and Andrew takes over the front, Clark has not been working with the other two much which is as one would expect it. He would not want to help anyone against his teammate, Ron who is the GC leader.
Tom continues to race for the chance at his first tour stage
win he has only 1/2 of a mile to go as the starts the last climb of the day. The
first section is only a 5% however the race ends at 10%. That 10% is likely to
hurt more after the other 2 1/2 miles of climbing done today. Andrew leads
then Tom with Clark at tail gunner. As they hit the steep part Tom swings left
around Andrew, Clark follows. Andrew looks up and tries to go with them
but his legs are just too tired to match the acceleration. Tom looks back and
sees Clark in a bit of trouble, Tom starts dancing on the pedals and gets a gap
on Clark. Look at Tom go , that's all Clark can do as Clark puts his head
down and tries to keep going. Tom gets to the
line and its 13:40 for this tough rider, oops I think he just exploded as he
tries to wave to the crowd. Clean up in aisle 12 please. Clark comes in 2nd just
9 seconds back, that may threaten Ron Moore's yellow jersey. Hmmm I
wonder if that was part of the Team plan today. That is if Ron does not finish
in the 2 minutes or so, I have not worked out the numbers yet. Andrew
finishes with a 13:58 which should help him some.
The next group is that of Charlie and Markus,
Charlie is in front and it will finish that way at 14:20 for Charlie and Markus
3 seconds behind that(14:23 for those who can not do the math). This last climb
has finished the job of spreading the riders out as they are in small groups.
Mitch is making his own little group as he comes in at 14:35. Next will be
Stephen Sehr (FS) and Cory Jackson(AmF) at 15:04 and 15:05. Then its Rick
at 15:11. Here comes Francis Manfred(BRW) and MTR (KCF) at 15:13 and
15:14. Looks like with these numbers that Francis will be passed by Clark
and Charlie in the GC.
There has been a crash!! Ryan Hulce of the Flying
Squirrels and Kevin Wisher of the BRW team have both went down, Ryan is slow in
getting up but seems be to able to continue. Kevin however has abandoned the
race, does not look like he is hurt bad but he has called for the team car. So
we have our first rider out of the race today. Ryan will be slow getting to the
finish however.
Ron Moore has not done it he comes in at 17:12, way back on the stage and that will put a nail in his coffin today, he will have to give up the Yellow Jersey, the good news is that it will be to his team Captain Clark Griffin. At a quick glance this stage has shaken things up as mountain stages often do. It looks like the power men have taken over the tour for all the big names are at the top now, Markus, Charlie, Clark, Ron and Francis are your top GC riders now ( in no particular order). Seems that illness and big hills don't mix well and has taken its toll on a few riders. So with this ride being done (although not everyone is in yet) we will call it a day. Full results will be on the RESULTS PAGE. We hope to also have the complete story on Ryan H. by next week or at least some good gossip. So until our next stage (Mike's Revenge) good bye.