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 …

Rock Racing Reveals Rosters For Tour de Georgia, Sea Otter.

Culver City, Calif. — Rock Racing will field a line-up for the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T that includes a world time trial champion, an Olympic gold medalist, Tour de France yellow jersey, polka-dot jersey and white jersey wearers and a three-time U.S. national road race champion who is also a four-time Tour de Georgia stage winner.

Rock Racing’s roster for the seven-day, 600-mile (965 km) stage race includes: Santiago Botero (COL), Tyler Hamilton (USA), Victor Hugo Peña (COL), Freddie Rodriguez (USA), Oscar Sevilla (ESP), Michael Creed (USA), Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) and Kayle Leogrande (USA). Mariano Friedrick is the team director.

[...]

On the other side of the country, Rock Racing will field a full eight-rider squad for the Sea Otter Classic SRAM Circuit Race Saturday at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California. On the roster for the 71-mile (114 km) National Race Calendar event are: Rahsaan Bahati (USA), David Clinger (USA), Peter Dawson (AUS), Sergio Hernandez (USA), Kevin Klein (USA), Rudolph “Rudy” Napolitano (USA), Adam Switters (USA) and Jeremiah Wiscovitch (USA).

Hey Rock! When are you going to give Cesar Grajales (you know, the guy who beat Lance Armstrong to the top of Brasstown Bald in 2004) a race start?

VeloNews | 2008 Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing gets in

Domestic team Rock Racing was not originally invited and had threatened take race organizer Medalist Sports to court over a disputed verbal invitation, but was given Saunier Duval’s team slot Tuesday. With that settlement, Rock has signed on as a founding sponsor of the Tour de Georgia — the event’s highest sponsorship level.

“My commitment to cycling is long-term and I am proud to support this world-class race which has featured such winners as Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis,” Rock team owner Michael Ball said. “As a tribute to the state of Georgia and to the rich tradition of this race, we plan something special for the final stage, so stay tuned.”

Hmm … sponsorship? Or bribery (on Rock Racing’s part) / extortion (on Medalist Sports’ part)? The timing of this sponsorship announcement is awfully suspect … making it seem as though the sponsorship is part of the agreement to let Rock race … a nice little quid pro quo.

The exchange of money does not make either the team OR the organizers look good.

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.

The type of rider who wins races where 125 riders start and one finishes—that’s a Flahute.

A Flahute thinks the Tour de France is just a bunch of long training rides. A real race is one where it’s pouring rain, it’s cold, the roads are treacherous, and the prize list is about the same as your 8-year-old neighbor’s allowance. When you’re a Flahute, that’s racing.

To put it another way, if your cycling spirit dampens at the sight of rain, you sure as shoot ain’t a Flahute.

Flahute racers focus on such classics as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, those tough northern classics filled with some of the worst roads and weather imaginable in bike racing. The only thing tougher than the races themselves are the guys that win them. They are the real Flahutes.

Riders like Eddy Merckx, who won 5 Tours de France and 5 Giros d’Italia, in spite of being a Flahute. Riders like Roger de Vlaeminck, who won Paris-Roubaix on 4 separate occasions. Riders like Andrei Tchmil and Johan Museeuw and Peter van Petegem. Riders like Rik van Looy and Briek Schotte. Tom Boonen has the potential to be a Flahute. Frank Vandenbroucke will never be a Flahute. Jacques Anquetil knew better than to even try. Bernard Hinault was one of the rare Frenchman who could contemplate qualifying. Sean Kelly was the first (and only) Irish Flahute. Lance Armstrong doesn’t have the balls to be a Flahute (yes, pun intended).

Probably the best description of the Flahute that I’ve found is in Graham R. Jones’ article titled “Flahute and ‘The Lion of Flanders’”. Go read it, then report back here.

Update: 11/26/2005

Another great description, entitled simply “Flahute” … dig it!

Update: 11/13/2006

More great descriptions of what makes a Flahute; this time in a two-part article on Walter Godefroot. Read part one and part two.

A few weeks ago, I got a Madonna del Ghisallo medal from Aquinas and More Catholic Goods online.

For those who aren’t aware, the Madonna del Ghisallo is the patroness of cyclists.

From http://www.catholic-forum.com/:

Medieval legend says that Count Ghisallo was travelling near the village of Magréglio when he was attacked by highway bandits. Spotting a image of the Virgin Mary in a roadside shrine, he broke away from his attackers and ran to it. There he took refuge, pled for Our Lady’s protection - and was miraculously saved from the robbers.

As the story spread, the Madonna del Ghisallo became known as patroness of local travellers. In more recent times, cyclists would often stop to rest and pray at the chapel, which is a local landmark, and is at the top of a steep hill. After World War II, Father Ermelindo Vigano, pastor at the shrine, proposed Ghisallo as the site of an Italian shrine for bicyclists, and she was given as patroness of cyclists on 13 October 1949 by Pope Pius XII. The chapel has become equal part religious shrine, part cycling museum, with artifacts and photos from the sport. There is an eternal flame that burns there in memory of the cyclists of are no longer with us, and services each Christmas Eve and the Feast of All Souls commemorate them.

I haven’t been wearing it too much, because apparently I’m allergic to the stainless steel chain that it came standard with. I replaced the chain with one that is supposed to be sterling, but either I’m allergic to that as well, or it’s also stainless like the original chain, but mis-packaged.

Another option is that Jesus doesn’t love me like he does A-Train, and is throwing down a blight upon my soul.

You see … I’m not Catholic; I was baptised as an Episcopalian (a.k.a. Catholic-Lite), and I’ve never been terribly religious. So some might call my wearing of a Madonna del Ghisallo medal as slightly blasphemous.

I’ve always tried to think of it this way. I’m not religious, but I do have my faith … and I certainly don’t see anything wrong with asking for a little extra protection whilst riding my bike. Even Lance Armstrong, a self-proclaimed atheist, used to wear a cross (along with a Texas charm) on a chain around his neck.

So I’ll keep looking for an appropriate chain; or I’ll deal with the allergic dermatitis until my body realizes that this is something I need to do for me.