Ah, l’Alpe d’Huez … books have been written about this mountain.

I cannot think of a more beautiful stage of any Tour de France than those that finish atop l’Alpe.

From Fausto Coppi’s win on the maiden stage in 1952, to Greg LeMond’s battle with Bernard Hinault in 1986, to Andy Hampsten’s solo excursion in 1992, to Pantani’s devastating attacks in 1995 and 1997, to “The Look” Lance Armstrong gave to Jan Ullrich in 2001, before attacking to win the stage and take the yellow jersey.

In all but 5 of the Tours de France during which a stage has concluded on l’Alpe d’Huez, the person who wore the maillot jaune at the end of the stage went on to take the final yellow jersey in Paris as the winner of that year’s race.

It’s no wonder that this mountain has the reputation as the most difficult climb in the Tour.

Sure, there are longer climbs and steeper climbs, but no mountaintop finish carries as much prestige as the Alpe … and there have been no unworthy winners of the stage.

In this year’s Tour, the only active rider to have won atop the Alpe d’Huez is Frank Schleck, who won the stage in 2006, during Floyd Landis’s ill-fated Tour de France win. Frank is wearing the yellow jersey today.

Will he still be wearing it at day’s end? Will he be able to get away, and win the stage again (and the Tour, for the first time)?

Oh, I wish I didn’t have to work today. I can’t wait to watch the DVR coverage this evening when I get home.

… what’s with all the fascination about pro cyclists’ personal lives?

Recent search strings leading people to my blog:

• Tyler Hamilton divorce
• Tyler Hamilton IRS
• Lance Armstrong divorce
• Will Frischkorn divorce
• Greg Lemond divorce
• Richard Sachs gay
• Michael Balls Floyd Landis
• Floyd Landis gay
• Tyler Hamilton gay

These are all Google search strings that have shown up recently in my SiteMeter stats, and you’ve got to dig pretty far in to Google results to hit my site from some of these …

VeloNews | Contador weathers Mortirolo storm

Alberto Contador (Astana) is 28.5km from winning a Giro d’Italia he never expected to start.

The Spanish climber deflected a flurry of last-gasp attacks from arch-rival Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) over the Gavia and Mortirolo in Saturday’s 232km mountain shootout to retain the maglia rosa and roll into Sunday’s final-day time trial with the narrowest of margins.

But four seconds might as well be four hours for Contador, who is favored to cement his lead in Sunday’s mostly flat race against the clock into Milano.

“I could never have imagined that I would be in the maglia rosa poised to win the Giro a month ago when my team called me,” a relieved Contador said. “To be in the maglia rosa in the last day of the Giro, playing in the time trial to win it all, it’s something unimaginable a month ago.”

Last day time-trials are always exciting, because you truly never know what might happen … just think about Greg LeMond’s performance in the 1989 Tour de France, when he was 50 seconds behind Laurent Fignon on the final day, with just 24.5 km to go until the finish. And yet, he managed to dig in and find 58 seconds, to win the overall by a mere 8 seconds. The closest, and the most exciting finish to the Tour de France ever, as far as I’m concerned.

While I don’t believe (at least at this point) that Alberto Contador or Riccardo Riccò are quite the same calibre of rider as LeMond and Fignon, despite VeloNews’ assertions that 4 seconds are as good as 4 hours, this Giro d’Italia is not yet over.

Contador could have an off-day … Riccò could put in the ride of his life to claw back those 4 seconds and all of a sudden, the accidental maglia rosa changes hands.

And maybe, just maybe, ASO will reconsider their ban of Astana from the Tour de France, which starts in just 5 weeks.

Fatty, of FatCyclist.com, has a new article up at BikeRadar.com; in which he attempts to mediate the divorce between Greg LeMond and Trek Bicycle Co.

A Letter To Trek Bicycle Co. And Greg LeMond

What Trek Gets

1. Lance Armstrong’s Peace of Mind: First and foremost, Trek receives a guarantee that Mr LeMond will never ever, ever, ever use any combination of the words “Lance,” “Armstrong,” or “dope” (or any of their synonyms) within three minutes of each other. Not in public. Not in private. Not by doing charades or meaningfully-raised eyebrows. From now on, in fact, Mr LeMond promises to pretend he has simply never heard of Lance Armstrong, and will act pleasantly surprised to hear that another American has also won the Tour de France. If Mr LeMond crosses this line even once, Trek may - at its own expense - use whatever combination of shock therapy, hypnotherapy and surgery it deems necessary to literally remove any recollection of Armstrong from Mr LeMond’s memory.
2. Custody of the Children: Trek retains the rights to all licensed Trek/LeMond dealerships, except for the ones where Mr LeMond had so deeply undercut the market that Trek no longer wants those dealerships anymore, anyway.
3. Existing “Fillmore” Inventory: Trek will take custody of all 2008 (and any remaining 2007) LeMond Fillmore bikes, to be re-decaled as Gary Fisher Triton bikes or sold to be used as ballast in seagoing barges, as Trek sees fit.

What LeMond Gets

1. Personal Freedom, Within Limits: As long as he pretends Armstrong doesn’t exist, Mr LeMond is welcome to rant about anyone else he wants. Except for people at Trek. They’re off-limits, too. And so is everyone at Astana. But he should feel free to hammer on Floyd Landis whenever he feels like it.
2. eBay: While Trek retains the traditional distribution channels, Mr LeMond receives a non-compete guarantee from Trek in the eBay channel. Also, Trek promises that it will not start selling bikes to Mr LeMond’s friends.
3. Employee Pricing: Mr LeMond will continue to get employee pricing on up to $2500 worth of Bontrager components per year.
4. Visitation Rights with Gary Fisher (Conditional): If Mr LeMond abides by the conditions thus far laid out for six contiguous months, he will be allowed to talk with Gary Fisher and begin to gather advice on how it’s possible to be completely insane, yet be regarded as an eccentric, beloved icon.
5. A Yellow Jersey, Autographed by Lance Armstrong: Oh, come on. We all know that this is what it’s really all about. You could have just asked for one, you know.

How typical! Siding with the cheating husband! Shame on you, Fatty … I would have expected more from a resident of Utah County. Shouldn’t this divorce reflect the reality of an actual divorce?

As such I propose the following:

As the aggrieved first wife in this marriage (even if she is a bit of a shrew), Fat Greggie should get it all … the rights to his bikes and name back, as well as the right to bash Armstrong (that hussy who stole Trek’s affections) and Trek in perpetuity.

And then there’s the alimony … Trek needs to make sure that Greggie can continue to live the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed by providing a generous alimony settlement; to continue for at least 15 years, even IF Greggie finds a new husband.

And while we’re at it, Greggie gets the house, too … this includes the Trek factory in Waterloo, Wisconsin AND all of the Trek Concept stores throughout the United States, where she can (if she so chooses), systematically cut hussy Lancey-poo’s face out of all pictures documenting their previous friendship.

After all, Trek flaunted its relationship with Lancey-poo in front of Greggie … didn’t even try to hide it like a good husband should, not to mention that you know from the beginning Lancey-poo was out to break-up the marriage. She was “surgically-enhanced”, after all, to lose that crucial weight that was required to win the Tour de France seven consecutive times.

No; instead Trek attempted to take a page from the gospel of Warren Steed Jeffs and build a polygamist community! And we all know that polygamy just doesn’t work. It’s too hard to ride in the flannel plaid shirts, jeans and boots.