Let the race begin

July 2, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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jerseys.jpgIt’s the most wonderful time of the year. The Tour de France is about to begin. It starts this Saturday in Monaco and I’m looking forward to watching one of the most interesting battles in years. Lance Armstrong is back and so is his team mate Alberto Contador who won in 2007. Can Australia’s Cadel Evans beat his second placing from the last couple of years to win? What a race it’ll be.

I thought that to prepare for the great race I’d revisit some of the basics of the race over the next couple of days.

If you have only started following the Tour de France recently and you’ve heard the commentators talking about different coloured jerseys, you might be wondering what all the different colours represent and why it’s so important to be wearing a jersey other than your team jersey.

Each team wears their own uniform but there are a number of special shirts or jerseys awarded each day. While it’s considered very prestigious to wear any of these jerseys throughout the race, it’s obviously even more so to be wearing one of these jerseys after the final sprint down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on the last day of the tour.

Many people know that the Yellow Jersey or Maillot Jaune is the most coveted of all the jerseys but here’s a quick rundown of what it’s all about.

Yellow Jersey

The Yellow Jersey is worn by the leader in the general classification. That means that whoever has the lowest overall time at the end of each stage of the event will be awarded with the Yellow Jersey. It was first awarded in 1919 and its colour was chosen to match the yellow paper of l’Auto magazine, founder of the Tour de France in 1903.

Green Jersey

The Green Jersey is given to the leader in the points classification, rewarding the best sprinter. It’s sometimes called the points jersey or sprinters’ jersey. During each stage, points are allocated for several intermediary sprints and for the finish. The jersey was introduced in 1953.

Polka Dot Jersey

The Polka Dot or King of the Mountains Jersey is awarded to the rider who earns most of the points at each summit. The winner is known as the King of the Mountains. Although the award was introduced in 1933, the red and white spotted jersey was not introduced until 1975.

White Jersey

The White Jersey is given to the best rider in the general classification under 25. The jersey was abandoned in 1989 but reintroduced in 1999.

So now you know a little more than you did a short while ago. I hope this brief explanation helps in your enjoyment of this year’s tour.



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Cadel Reignites Car versus Bike Debate

December 12, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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If you want to get emotions running hot there’s nothing that works quite as well as talking about cyclists on our roads.

Cycling star, Cadel Evans, has stirred things up by claiming that Australian drivers are far too agressive, especially towards cyclists. He has been quoted by News.com.au in an article titled, Australians drive cyclist star Cadel Evans to despair.

I drive on the road and I don’t like people just not having respect for other road users.

I spend half my year in Europe so I know what the traffic is like there.

It is really strange, to be honest, the way Australian drivers are.

Our roads have much less traffic, are far larger, and the drivers have much more space, but they are much more aggressive and negative to other road users.

When you ride a race in Italy or Switzerland or France, the roads are much narrower and there is much more traffic, but the drivers are much more tolerant and easier to deal with. It is a bit of a shame.

His comments have started a flood of comments on the article with both drivers and cyclists throwing insults.

I see the main problem being the lack of education for road users. Many drivers are unaware that it is perfectly legal for cyclists to ride two abreast. Unfortunately some cyclists will ride two abreast even when it isn’t safe to do so.

I’m currently cycling about 250 km a week and I’d admit that the majority of drivers are courteous but it would only take one errant driver to put me in hospital or a morgue so it concerns me that there are many drivers still don’t get it.

The argument from a lot of drivers is that cyclists break the road rules all the time. Let me tell you something, it not only annoys you, it annoys me. For some reason we all get tarred with the same brush so when some cyclists do the wrong thing, there are motorists who take that as a license to harrass the rest of us.

Common sense tells us that not all cyclists break the rules. Common sense also tells us that even though I’m seeing more and more motorists running red lights and making other dangerous and careless errors on the road, I don’t have the right to make blanket statements about ‘all drivers’.

Some drivers are dangerous. Some cyclists are dangerous.

Some drivers complain that cyclists slow them down. I wonder what those drivers would do with the extra 10 or 20 seconds they would gain if they didn’t have to slow down to pass a cyclist. (And lets face it, you probably don’t even lose that much time. You probably just get to the next red light a little later.) On the other hand, if the thousands of commuter cyclists in each city decided to jump into a car instead each day, could you imagine the extra traffic chaos? Could you imagine how much longer the daily drive to work would take?

Thankfully, most of my new commute is on a well built and well maintained cycle path. I have great joy in whizzing past rows and rows of cars which are stuck in peak hour traffic.



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He's Back!

September 10, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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lance_armstrong.jpgEver since he retired from professional cycling there have been rumours that Lance Armstrong would make a comeback, so when the latest rumours started circulating I figured that I wouldn’t believe them until I heard the words from from Lance’s own mouth.

If you click here you’ll see Lance telling the world that he’s back.

As well as the short video of Lance announcing his return to professional cycling there is a media release annoucning a few more details.

Today, Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and cycling champion, released the following statement regarding his return to professional sports:

“I am happy to announce that after talking with my children, my family and my closest friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden. This year alone, nearly eight million people will die of cancer worldwide. Millions more will suffer in isolation, victims not only of the disease but of social stigma. After the passage of Proposition 15 in Texas, a $3 billion investment in the fight against cancer which is helping to make this disease part of the national dialogue in America, it’s now time to address cancer on a global level.”

Mr. Armstrong will discuss his cycling program and an international LIVESTRONGTM strategy on September 24th in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative.

If he intends riding for an eighth tour victory, the 2009 Tour de France should be amazing. I can’t wait to see Evans, Contador, Armstrong, Sastre and several other serious contenders battle it out through France.



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Yellow dream ends for Cadel

July 27, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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small__tour_de_france_logo.jpgAfter an amazing three weeks, Cadel Evans will stand in second place on the winners podium in Paris later today, just over a minute behind Carlos Sastre.

Cadel’s time trial performance wasn’t good enough to counter the amazing effort of Carlos Sastre who retained the Yellow Jersey after the 20th stage. Most experts had tipped Evans to pull back the minute and a half lead of Sastre to take yellow but Cadel’s time trial looked awkward while Sastre rode the time trail of his life.

Cadel did take some time back from the leader and managed to move from fourth place up to second overall but this wasn’t to be his year for a win.

This will be the second consecutive year that Evans has finsihed second in the world’s greatest sporting event. There is little doubt that he would have finished number one if he had a team as strong as Sastre’s CSC. CSC dominated the race on most days of the event, especially in the mountain stages.

Sastre was able to take valuable time on Evans because he had faultless team support. He proved himself a worthy winner by attacking and building a good lead on L’Alpe-d’Huez.

Another Australian, Stuart O’Grady, figured highly in the succes of Team CSS. He worked hard at the front of the peleton, forcing the pace and helping to make his team the dominant force that it was.

So the Tour de France for 2008 is almost over. All that remains is today’s final stage which is traditionally a day for the sprinters.

I’m dissapointed that Cadel won’t be standing in the number one position later today but still incredibly proud that he managed to place so highly without a great deal of team support in the mountains. He is a magnificent rider and I can only hope that he moves to a team that can take him one place higher in 2009 or that Silence Lotto makes more of an effort to build a winning team to back their star rider.



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Who will win Tour de France 2008?

July 25, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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small__tour_de_france_logo.jpgThe question of who will win the Tour de France for 2008 continues to be a cause of great speculation.

Most experts are stilling seeing Cadel Evans as the favourite and even some of the riders consider him to be almost unbeatable.

In the ABC News article, Only disaster can deny Evans Tour victory: Millar, British time-trial specialist David Millar is tipping Evans to overhaul his 1 minute 34 second deficit to his Spanish rival Carlos Sastre.

In the race’s first time trial, held over 29.5km, Evans finished fourth at 27secs behind winner Stefan Schumacher. Sastre finished 1:43 behind the German.

Some are wondering whether having the yellow jersey and starting last from the field will drive Sastre, more known for his climbing skills, on towards a maiden triumph on the race.

But Millar believes Evans would have to have a disastrous day not to overhaul the Spaniard.

“Carlos will do a better time trial than he would normally do, just because he’s going so well,” Millar said.

“But he’s a climber, so he’s going to lose time to Cadel and Denis (Menchov) and Christian (Vande Velde).”

So can we expect an Evans triumph on Saturday? “No worries,” added Millar.

All the big contenders enjoyed a relaxing day last night, and tonight’s 19th stage is likely to be dominated by a bunch sprint at the finish.

I’m not celebrating yet but it’s good to know that the general feeling is still that we’ll see an Australian in Yellow in Paris this Sunday.

One of the other early favourites, Christian Vande Velde also rates Evans as the likely winner.

American Christian Vande Velde, who dropped out of yellow jersey contention on the second of three days in the Alps, is aiming for the race of his life in a bid to secure a podium place.

The 32-year-old Garmin team leader is sixth place at 4:41 behind Sastre and is hoping to jump up to third.

“I think Cadel has a great chance of winning the Tour,” Vande Velde, who finished 10secs behind Evans in the first time trial.

My nine year old son, James, will be in Paris to see the final stage. I’m not at all jealous. All I can say is that he’d better get some good photos.



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