The 8th Wonder of the World

Was there a more beautiful sight yesterday than that of the Astana cycling team in Southern France, pushing through an incredibly difficult Stage 4 Tour de France team time trial? Absolutely not. After a 4 year break from the Tour, the team time trial returned and did so in style, with the ultra-talented Astana team cruising to victory on a technically difficult course and setting up great suspense and drama for the next 18 days of the Tour. For those unfamiliar with the subject, the team time trial is an event in which teams (of 9 people each) race alone on a designated course. The Tour is of course a team event as well as an individual event, so this stage was a very important one. Teams usually align themselves in single-file formation--see the picture--for drafting, so only one team member is exposed to the wind, thus working significantly harder, at a time. Yesterday was unique in that the crosswinds forced teams to align in echelon-formation, a slightly diagonal line to protect themselves from wind blowing against them at an angle. The team records the time of the 5th rider to cross the finish line, thus 4 riders are "expendable" though it is unwise to lose riders--the more riders in formation, the more people rotate to spend time "pulling" against the wind, and the faster a team can go. Of course it is also unwise to slow down to wait for struggling team members, so the strategy of the event can be fairly complex.

Team Astana dominated the team time trial yesterday, easily beating the 19 other teams en route to the stage victory. A nice rivalry has formed between Astana, Team Columbia-HTC (pictured here--Mark Cavendish is wearing the Green Jersey as the best sprinter so far), and Team Garmin-Chipotle (I love the sponsored names), with Astana the only non-American team in the triumvirate (wow, that is a beautiful vocab word and I have no idea where that came from in my head) of powerful biking teams. The beauty of the team time trial though is truly astounding (insert Astana/astounding pun here). The speed and power generated by Astana was incredible, almost as breath-taking as the elegance and grace with which the Astana rode. Riders were moving at speeds approaching 40 mph...on a bike...on flat land...with a crosswind. It might be hard for non-bikers to appreciate, but it's stunning to think a "train" (as bikers say) of riders can move as fast as you drive your car, and they have to manually push against the wind. That's the power and speed of it. Then, each team member perfectly tucks behind another, all the riders cycling in rhythm with a perfect rotation (cycle, if you will) of riders going from the front to the rear of the drafting line. Graceful and elegant, indeed. And consider that all the riders are wearing almost the exact same outfit on nearly identical bikes in the sunny countryside in Southern France and the team time trial is aesthetically pleasing, to boot.

And as if that wasn't enough, the team time trial stirred up all kinds of drama in the overall standings. In stage 3, the peloton (main pack) of riders was split in two by an attack by Team Columbia in crosswinds, with Lance Armstrong making it into the front pack and most rivals stuck in the rear. Though Lance remained 40 seconds back of Fabian Cancellara for the overall lead, he leadfrogged teammates Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, and most importantly, main rival Alberto Contador (the Spanish time trial champion--he's wearing the Spanish colors in the picture) and moved from 10th place to 3rd place. The drama between Armstrong and Contador is of course well-documented, with two (or really four) viable Tour contenders on one team. [Again, for those unfamiliar, a team usually has just one leader and the other 8 riders on a team do everything the can to support that rider--pulling the wind, setting a tempo/cadence, pacing a leader uphill, and more. Thus a team with 2 leaders can be torn; even though it is early, Lance jumped over Contador instead of helping him to the front. As Lance said about himself, "I've won 7 tours, so I think I deserve some credit." And of course he does. But until his comeback, this was Contador's team and it will be a real battle between these two supposed teammates to see who emerges. Thus, the drama between them.] Anyway, with Lance behind Cancellara (the Swiss time trial champion) by 40 seconds, Astana needed to ride 40 seconds faster than Cancellara's team Saxo Bank. Turns out, after 3/4 of the course, Astana was up by 41 seconds, good enough to remarkably put Lance back in the leader's yellow jersey. Astana finished 40 seconds behind...a virtual tie between Cancellara and Armstrong. Reverting back to hundredths of a second, Cancellara retained the lead by the slimmest of margins, 0.22 seconds. So with Lance less than half a second off the lead, the tour is getting very interesting. Plus, with Lance 2nd, Contador 3rd, Leipheimer 4th, and Kloden 5th, Astana has 4 riders in the top 5...incredible. Oh, and we're headed to Lance's home away from home, the mountains. As if the tour hasn't already stirred up enough drama, Fridays HC (hors categorie, beyond category) climb to the finish in Spain will be a spectacular sight. But still not as stunning as yesterday's team time trial. You can keep up with TdF news and results here!