4 American Teams in the 2010 Tour de France!

Holy! That just hit me. 4 American based/owned cycling teams in the 2010 Tour de France. That is 20% of the teams.

Interesting to think back on the lineage of American teams in le Tour over the last 25 years:

1) Team 7-11 in 1986. My boss, Ron Kiefel, raced on that team!

2) Motorola - (7-11 version 2.0 and begin Lance Era....again my boss raced on that team, even with Lance

3) US Postal - More Lance

4) Discovery - Even More Lance

5) Garmin/Transitions/Chipotle (Slipstream) - Go Go Local Burritos and Boulder, Colorado team to the big leagues.

6) Team HTC-Columbia (Highroad) - Guten Tag! Team Telekom/T-Mobile calls on American big wig Bob Stapleton to buy the once dominant, turned druggie German powerhouse.

7) BMC - Phonak blows up (thanks Floyd) and the Swiss hearing aid company's boss decides to build an American team around the bike company he also owns.....BMC.

8) Radio Shack - need I even mention.....more Lance and remote controlled monster trucks and CBs.

8 American teams have (or will have) raced in le Grand Boucle over the last 25 years.

I need a Big Glup and maybe a Carnitas burrito.

Not exactly a newsflash

Here's a shocker: Armstrong admits that there was 'tension' on the Astana team during the Tour. Ferreals? Quel surprise.

Check that, not just tension, but 'real tension,' according to his quote in the CyclingNews article. I dunno Lance, sounds pretty serious. What did you do about it? "There were not only tensions between him [Contador] and me, but other people [were] involved. There was quiet at the dinner table more than once." Whoa. And uncomfortable silence at the dinner table? For shame.

I know that this comes as a surprise to no one, especially given some of the quotes that Armstrong and Contador made in the weeks following the Tour, but I suppose the confirmation is worth something. Interestingly, later on in the article Armstrong does say that he'll be going for a Tour win in '10, and not riding for someone else on the team. Again, not a shocker, but it does mean that Contador and Armstrong will be going wheel-to-wheel next summer.

In the meantime, though, it seems like Armstrong is pursuing attractions of a more musical kind. Keep it real, yo!

They Call Them Mad Skillz

This photo is definitely for the Professor.

The Silly Season

With the daily drama of the Tour de France behind us, cycling fans have to make due with the intrigue that defines the weeks before riders and teams are able to openly announce their plans for the next season. So we get lots of speculative articles. Where will Contador land? Caisse d'Epargne? Garm*n? Katusha? A new team with formula one sponsors Santander and Renault? What about Wiggins? Will he stay at Garm*n or is he off to a new British squad in the works, SkyTV? And will Lance lure Andy away from his brother to ride for the Shack? It's enough to make my head spin and it's been less than a week.

And then there's this image, which arrived in my in-box on Monday, from Hollywood with only the follow words of explanation: "2010 trek 6.9 with Di2 dura ace."

So, in the spirit of the silly season, I ask: could this image and these words signal the seemingly unthinkable? Could Hollywood, long loyal to the Big S, be considering a switch to Trek for his next ride? We'll have to stay tuned.

HTFU Award: George Hincapie

It turns out that Big George broke his collarbone on crash in Stage 17. He went on to finish the stage, refuse an x-ray, ride the time trial the next day, ride two more stages -- one up Ventoux -- and then finish in Paris.

Check out the story on CyclingNews here (which is also where I stole the photo above). Here's his quote before heading to the starting line the day after his wreck:

"It’s about survival," he said. "I don't know if can even get down in the time trial position. It’s about survival and to get better in the next few days. I rode the last 70km injured yesterday but I was able to ride, I was in pain but I could get out of the saddle. I'm hoping I can do the same in the next few days."

Yeah, he survived all right. Big props to the big guy!

New Poll: Who's Holding?

So we as a group correctly divined the Contador was going to ride away with the Tour, though I'm not sure anyone would have predicted that he would do so this decisively. Nevertheless, we gets our props.

Now it's time for one of the less savory bits of Tour-spectating, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop, which of course always comes in the form of doping revelations. While no one has yet been popped for doping in this race (for the first time in recorded history, I believe), that doesn't mean that it's not going to happen in the next few weeks, a la Floyd in 2006, or Di Luca following the Giro.

So who will it be? Who are we missing? Who is most likely to get caught with a needle in his arm?

One final note, for those of you racing for Huck-a-Buck glory at Lake Crabtree tomorrow, I've heard that Happy Fun Racing will be instituting post-race checks of your biological passports, so make sure you're ready. (Though in this case I think they'd be most likely to throw you out if you weren't on some sort of substance.)

[Edit, 7/28: It looks like the French lab rats are starting to leak that there might be some problems. Read about it on VeloNews.]

Let's hear it for the boy...

Yeah, let's here it for this man:

[Video taken from the amusing Lanterne Rouge blog.]

There he is, the Tour's real winner: Kenny van Hummel, the clear favorite for the 2009 Lanterne Rouge. Sure, the video above is from a couple of days ago, but it does give a sense of just what kind of riding is going on at the back of the pack. (Or, way off the back, as the case may be.)

For a better look check out this CyclingNews article, in which van Hummel shows himself to be both a competitor and a good sport. Chapeau!

Incredible

TdF Rest Day photo

Rest Day Predictions

So the picture at the Tour seems to have clarified a bit following yesterday's mountaintop finish. It looks like Contador is clearly the class of the peloton, and after Sunday he's signaled his desire to move beyond his nickname ("The Accountant") and establish himself as the strongest rider in the sport.

We also learned that Lance has lost some of the 'pop' that made him el patron for so many years: when Contador went he was simply unable to follow. Moreover, even with the help of the ever-loyal Kloden, he was only able to minimize his time loss and keep things respectable.

The Schleck brothers, on the other hand, showed both the ability and the desire to chase the big guns. While their team is in no place to challenge the dominance of Astana, they're ready to pick up the gauntlet when it's thrown down.

What else did we learn? What did you think of Contador's attack? There's a new poll, and I think Wednesday's mountain stage and Thursday's time trial still leaves the door open for some, but only a crack.

Personally, I was hoping that Ryder Hesjedal would make mountain bikers everywhere proud by pulling off the flier, but he wasn't even close in his attempt. (And I'm not sure it was ever a real attempt: Adam?) Discuss amongst yourselves.

A little WTF? from The Badger

Nobody messes with The Badger. Nobody.

That pic is from the CyclingNews story, but if you haven't gotten a chance to read Hinault's explication of the detailed strategy by which Astana will be toppled, check out the interview on VeloNews.

Or, if you don't have the time, let me summarize it for you: "Just attack." That's his answer to everything, it seems, from how to deal with podium interlopers, to how to win the Tour, to how to open stuck jars of pickles. My high school football coach would be proud. (While simultaneously deriding the entire sport as sissified.)

Emotion

German-Australian Heinrich Haussler won today's rainy stage at the Tour de France with panache and emotion. Like many, I have been surprised by the emergence of this rider who's had a coming-out party all year at races such as Milan-San Remo and Flanders. I recently watched some of the superb videos available on his Cervelo Test Team site where he featured prominently. Based on what I saw there, I wasn't sure what to make of his combination of laid-back Australian surfer dude and Teutonic aggression but today's show of emotion indicates that Haussler is a rider with class and a genuine commitment to win.

Bastille Day

TdF Rest Day Video- Hollywood in Lights

After bringing you a glimpse of Hollywood's outsized PRO baller lifestyle last week, we're proud to bring you the BCC debut of Hollywood's first all-mountain video for the Big S. Hollywood stars as "Matt Hunter" on this "I am Specialized" downhill run aboard the new 2010 S-works Enduro. Stay tuned: Hollywood rides the Shiv next!

And the Bbox goes.....Win!

Wow! Finally after all of these years of watching Mr. Thomas Voeckler pull some seemingly futile breakaway attempts, the people's champ of France finally pulls in a stage win.

Congrats to Tommy V.

Ali to Astana? Trade Rumors Swirl...

Trouble on the Bull City Front? Ali was recently spied in an Astana kit on his new Trek time trial bike.



Le Tour is upon us and I suspect Ali will be attacking. Too bad his bud Hollywood will be watching from the sidelines or rather the Italian Riviera.