Bike World News

Welcome back to our fourth day of coverage of the 2009 Tour de France. Today saw the return of Lance Armstrong and the “blue train” while many others crashed and burned on the technical and windy course.

• Lance Armstrong and the Astana team looked like the Discovery Channel team of old, using well developed training and tactics to dominate the Stage 4 team time trial.
• Armstrong ended up nearly dead even (220 milliseconds down) with Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara gets to wear the yellow jersey again tomorrow, but one feels that his time in yellow will not last much longer.
• Armstrong was happy with the team’s performance, saying “”We looked at our performance and we can say we did our best. We won the stage and gained time on our main rivals.” He went on to suggest that he may not be able to keep up his challenge. “I wanted to be one of the strongest in the race. I think that I am but I may not be the strongest to win. I think someone on this team will win.”
• Lance told Eurosport it was “disappointing to lose the yellow jersey by thousandths of a second”, while stating that had “dozens of yellow jerseys” at home.”
• On Twitter today, Armstrong said “…they might need to repair the pavement on the sections where Alberto was pulling. All in all, great day.”
• As a result of their performance today, Astana now holds 4 of the top 5 spots in the race.
• Fabian Cancellara told Eurosport that keeping the yellow jersey was, under the circumstances, incredible. He thanked good Swiss timing and tipped his hat to his teammates for their performance.
• Cadel Evans, while not quite as vitriolic this year, damned some of his teammates with faint praise, saying “Guys like Matt Lloyd & Charly Wegelius in particular, are not really made for this event. They are young riders and they have not had many opportunities to run against the clock by teams. I am a specialist against the clock and they are afraid to disappoint me, so it’s much pressure for them.”
• As a result of a fall, a mechanical and a flat today, Evans is already sitting three minutes off of the lead.
• Carlos Sastre was happy with Cervelo’s performance, stating “This was a very hard and very technical time trial, which was characterized by a strong wind and narrow roads. I believe that our result is very positive because it served (to show that we can overcome our lack of experience) with power.”
• Denis Menchov was just one of the riders that had a fall during today’s stage. He went done 1 km from the start but was not injured.
• Skil-Shimano’s Piet Rooijakkers went down and ended up finishing the stage in an ambulance. Some of his teammates got caught in the crash as well, but were able to finish.
• Four BBox Bouyges Telecom riders overshot a turn and ended up in a ditch. Alessandro Ballan had a problem in the same spot.
• Speaking of Ballan, he had the names of his daughters tattooed on his biceps. Azzurra, just eleven months old, is on the right arm while Stella is on the left. The tattoos will be revealed when he next raises his arms in a victory salute.
• Ballan’s Lampre teammate Marzio Bruseghin is having a bit of a rough start to his Tour. He has suffered falls in each of the last three stages and recieved a fine yesterday for excessively drafting the team car when trying to catch back up with the peloton.
• Quick Step’s Jurgen Van De Walle will be spending another night in a French hospital before heading home to Belgium. He had a fall during Sunday’s stage of the race and broke his collarbone and punctured his lung. When he does go home, he’ll have to be transferred in car.
• Frank Vandenbroucke commented on Cadel Evans “pathetic” attitude about not having any help at the end of yesterday’s windy stage. He also surmises that Alberto Contador is not mad at Lance Armstrong and that it was his own fault that he was surprised by the wind.
• Johan Bruyneel commented that Lance is “always awake”, and that his constant awareness of what is happening around him helped him make it into the final break yesterday.
• Alberto Contador was decidely obtuse in his reactions to yesterday’s stage: “I will not begin to comment on the tactics of the team … But each has its own conclusions. In any event, the Tour will not play on what happened today is a situation of course more.”
• Tomorrow’s 5th stage will travel 196.5 kilometers from Cap d’Agde to Perpignan and presents only a couple of category 4 climbs in the middle of the race to slow down the riders. The flat finish will give Mark Cavendish another chance to hold onto the sprinter’s jersey.

Other Cycling News:

• Ivan Basso is taking advantage of his time off from the Tour to help with a Liquigas children’s cycling camp at the velodrome in Montichiari.
• Mark Cavendish has already seen some benefit out of his sprint wins at the Tour de France. He received a likely lucrative contract to appear in the post-Tour Night of Peer criterium.
• Michael Rasmussen does not want to pay the 700,000 euro fine that was levied on him after providing false whereabouts and missing repeated doping controls. He is planning to appeal the fine to either the Court of Arbitration for Sport or a Swiss civil court. Ramsussen is eligible to return to racing on July 25th.
• 23 year old Ignatas Konovalovas has renewed with the Cervelo Test Team through the end of the 2012 season.
• Bernhard Kohl told a European talk show that he started using banned substances at the age of 19. He also admitted to using stored blood just before the start of the 2008 Tour. He continued his accusations of the pro peloton, saying “I only cheated the public, but not my colleagues. Because all fought with equal weapons.”
• Filipo Simeoni will appear before the disciplinary committee of the Italian Cycling Federation on July 22nd over his protest of Italian National jersey and not being allowed to race in the Giro.
• The future of the Dortmund Six Day race remains uncertain. Organizers are currently focused on dealing with a funding gap for the race that is  planned to run from October 29th to November 3rd.
• Nordmilch AG, the sponsor of the Milram team, is pleased with the team’s results so far this year and are happy that the team has helped with brand awareness.

Other Results:

• Ina-Yoko Teutenberg claimed stage five at the Giro d’Italia for women today.
• Rabobank’s Pieter Weening took the third stage of the Tour of Austria, but Columbia-HTC’s Michael Albasini stays in yellow.

Tags: 2009 tour de france, 2009 tour de france results, alberto contador, Alessandro Ballan, astana, Bernhard Kohl, Bouyges Telecom, cadel evans, Carlos Sastre, cervelo, cervelo test team, columbia, Court of Arbitration for Sport, denis menchov, Eurosport, Fabian Cancellara, Giro d'Italia, ignatas konovalovas, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Ivan Basso, johan bruyneel, Lance, Lance Armstrong, lance armstrong tour de france, Liquigas, Mark Cavendish, Marzio Bruseghin, michael albasini, michael rasmussen, Milram, NORDMILCH AG, Pieter Weening, Quick Step, tour de france 2009

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