Tour de France 2011

That awesome aero wheel from Armstrong's bike

wearyellow.com | Lance's Time Trial Bike

The wheel

Nike worked with “renowned artist Futura” to come up with some iconography to represent Lance Armstrong's life and career.

Nike's Mark Smith took the suggestions and developed a set of 40 icons printed in a double line running around the circumference of the Bontrager aero wheel Armstrong used in Stage 1 today. They're yellow on the black background of the wheel, and the frame has a yellow “10/2” logo that matches the icons in color and size.

There's a little Eiffel Tower, a map of Texas with a star for Austin, an "LIG" for the kids (Luke, Isabelle, and Grace), and more.

I'm looking for good photos of the wheel; the images here are grabs from the NikeCycling.com site.

Some of the icons

Kind of reminds me of the BMW art cars of the '70s. Very cool.

It's a little hard to link, since they're stuck in the late dot-com bubble, and build every page in Flash. Just click on anything that moves for a while and it's bound to come up eventually.

Update: Reader “sanmusa” sends a link to a new cyclingnews.com story on the bike, which includes this shot of the rear wheel.

(via HYPEBEAST.com.)

Graham Watson Stage 1 photo gallery

GrahamWatson.com | Tour de France Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial

Levi, Fabian, Floyd, and Dave from GrahamWatson.com

Graham Watson is the premier cycling photographer working today. He's writing a daily column at Chris Brewer's ThePaceline.com (free registration required), as well.

During the Giro, he was providing on-demand prints for sale, so that you could order up-to-poster sized prints of his shots the day they were taken. I'm hoping that will return for the Tour.

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

VeloNews | Is Ullrich's Tour already over?

Sebastian Moll offers a look at the day's events from the perspective of Jan Ullrich. I said at the end of the stage that T-Mobile would have to give serious thought to switching alliance to Alexandre Vinokourov, who finished 3rd on the day, 53 seconds back, and Moll examines the question in more depth:

What's more, the T-Mobile hierarchy seems to be running quite counter to what the marketing experts in the corporate headquarters in Bonn would like. Vino was 15 seconds faster than Ullrich, although the Kazakh is a far better climber than he is a time trialist.

And that really is the heart of the issue. The team time trial is probably a draw, especially with the stupid rule limiting time losses. Maybe there's a day where Ullrich gets a minute in the mountains, but that's going to be neutralized by the day (or days) when Armstrong does the same to him; Armstrong is the better climber. The long time trial, on the last competitive day of the Tour, looms large as the only place I could see Ullrich putting a dent into Armstrong.

Vinokourov has three mountaintop finishes where he could possibly gap Armstrong, and less time to make up than Ullrich.

Moll's wrapup:

Evidently, the Tuscan miracle doctor [Luigi Cecchini] was not able to do much good anymore on a formerly great champion, whose best days may be over.

Also:

cyclingpost.com | Ullrich vows to keep on fighting

"I'm a bit demoralized," he said, "but the Tour has just started." Ullrich, who has never been overtaken in a time trial before, admitted that "it was not nice to be surpassed by Lance." He went on to declare that he had given everything he had and insisted that he had not failed completely.

CN.com Stage 1 photo gallery available

www.cyclingnews.com | Stage 1 Photo Gallery

Zabriskie en fuego and in yellow, Vino on course from cyclingnews.com

Discovery Channel team podcast

Discovery Channel Team | Exclusive Audio Updates

Discovery Channel's Dan Osipow will be updating these twice a day. They're in Windows Media format, and today's post-stage update is already available.

As of 5:20, no sign of the SIRIUS podcast.

Also, SpokeRadio has a hook-up with Frankie Andreu, who reports that George Hincapie was jersey-hunting today, and was a little disappointed not to take the stage win.

And, to keep this multimedia party rollin', VeloNews has a video highlight available in Windows Media. Today's had a Spanish announcer's track, as well.

(Via hyku.)

Stage 1 recaps coming in

BBC SPORT | American duo dominate Tour opener

Some other thoughts on Stage 1:
• I haven't heard OLN mention it, but Zabriskie rode for US Postal through last season, and the team apparently didn't make a big effort to keep him. VeloNews interviewed Bobby Julich in late February:
  

  The first thing was total disbelief ... that Postal Service wouldn't sign David Zabriskie. I was blown away and I had to ask (Riis), are you sure that he's available? Absolutely, 100 percent this is the guy you want because by far he is the top American talent under the age of 25.

  Update: VeloNews asked about the switch:

  Zabriskie, who switched to CSC after riding for U.S. Postal until last year, credited his former squad, saying his years there were "good" and that they "were development years that helped me progress as a rider. They gave me a start and a lot of experience."

  I heard Bob Roll say Zabriskie would wear the white jersey, but he was born in 1979, so he's a few months too old for that competition.

• Picture of the day:

  
  

  
  See ya: Armstrong reels in Ullrich
  from BBC Sport's Stage 1 photo gallery
• Jersey roundup: Zabriskie does hold yellow and green, there were no climbing points awarded, CSC leads Discovery in team rankings (by 4 seconds!), and Fabian Cancellara of Fassa Bortolo takes the white jersey. Your first lanterne rouge is Saunier Duval-Prodir's Leonardo Piepoli, who won't hold that distinction once we hit the mountains. Somehow, he finished 4:40 back of Zabriskie; the next slowest rider, Domina Vacanze's Rafael Nuritdinov, was at 3:50 on the day.
• Iban Mayo, whose form was considered something of a mystery, cleared everything up today, finishing 175th of 189. He's already 3:14 back of Zabriskie.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Zabriskie surprises for stage win and maillot jaune

letour.fr | Stage 1 standings

Zabriskie takes Stage 1, Armstrong passes Ullrich!

CSC's Dave Zabriskie took Stage 1 of the Tour de France, but his amazing performance will be somewhat overshadowed by Lance Armstrong's ride.

Zabriskie joins the elite fraternity of American yellow jersey wearers (I think only Armstrong, Lemond, Zabriskie), nipping Armstrong by 2 seconds in the 19 kilometer time trial, the fastest (non-prologue) in Tour history. He also becomes the first American to win a stage in the Vuelta, the Giro, and the Tour.

Armstrong showed that any concerns about his fitness are ill-founded, finishing 2nd on the day, and actually passing Jan Ullrich, who started one minute ahead, on the road. That means Armstrong is already 1:06 up on T-Mobile's team leader, and :51 on Vinokourov.

Four Americans in the top 6 riders. T-Mobile will be talking about whether they should switch horses to Vinokourov tonight.

Top 10 plus interesting riders:

1) Dave Zabriskie, CSC 20:51
2) Lance Armstrong, Discovery, at :02
3) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at :53
4) George Hincapie, Discovery, at :56
5) Laszlo Bodrogi, Credit Agricole, at :59
6) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at 1:01
7) Fabian Cancellara, Fassa Bortolo, at 1:01
8) Jens Voigt, CSC, at 1:04
9) Vladimir Karpets, Illes Balears, at 1:05
10) Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, Liberty Seguros, at 1:06
11) Bobby Julich, CSC, at 1:06
12) Jan Ullrich, T-Mobile, at 1:08
...
14) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at 1:13
...
20) Ivan Basso, CSC, at 1:26

Stage 1 updates

Dave Zabriskie @
Tour de Georgia ITT

CSC's Dave Zabriskie is the early leader at Stage 1: His 20:51 has held the top place for more than an hour against some pretty good time trialers. Usually, the early times can't stand up to the big boys still to come, but that's a fast time, and should at least rank highly at day's end.

BBC Sport quotes Zabriskie:

The American tells BBC Sport at the finish: "I spent the whole time not being able to hear crowd because I had team boss Bjarne Riis in the ear telling me to catch the motorbike."

Klöden comes in at 22:52. Vladimir Karpets was one rider some people predicted could take this stage: He finished in 21:56. Michael Rich, another possible stage winner, is in at 22:05.

On OLN, Paul Sherwen just reported that he had talked to somebody at Liberty Seguros, and that Joseba Beloki is 5 kilograms (~11 pounds) overweight for the Tour.

Alexandre Vinokourov comes in at 21:44, still good enough for second so far -- Zabriskie was just flying.

Levi Leipheimer is on the road, as is double world time-trial champion Michael Rogers. Leipheimer is in at 22:04, good for 7th, for now.

ROGERS COMES IN at 22:44! Not good for the Aussie.

Floyd Landis comes in at 21:53 -- that's 4th at the moment (12:45 Eastern).

Hincapie comes in 3rd so far, at 21:48!

Armstrong is off! He's not wearing the yellow jersey, as he could. He says he only wants to wear the jersey if he's earned it. He pulled out of his pedal right at the bottom of the start ramp. He also had pedal problems at the Dauphiné Libéré.

Brad McGee, another consensus pick to challenge for the stage win, comes in placed 15th. Zabriskie has a shot at wearing yellow tonight.

Ullrich is 42 seconds back of Zabriskie at the first time check, while Armstrong comes through 3 seconds back, or 39 seconds up on Ullrich. Armstrong has a big pink rabbit in sight, and he's closing the gap!

At the 2nd time gap, Armstrong is 3 seconds faster than Zabriskie, and he's passed Jan Ullrich on the road!

Also:

BBC Sport | Tour de France opening stage

The BBC offers some photos from today's warm-up and TT: Bodrogi and Zabriskie are already up in the gallery, with more to come.

It's on: Stage 1 underway

Time for the talking to stop and the stomping to start.

Stage 1 is too long to be a prologue, but shorter than a usual time trial at 19 kilometers, or about 12 miles. The course profile would be familiar to anyone who rides in Florida: It varies by 3 meters other than a climb over the Pont de Noirmoutier, a bridge onto the island where most of the time trial will be ridden.

The riders will go off at 1-minute intervals all the way to the end; in longer time trials, they'll sometimes vary the rider intervals at the end. Eurosport has a compressed start list that's very easy to scan; Armstrong goes off last at 6:48 PM local time, or 12:48 PM Eastern. Interestingly, Ullrich is riding in 2nd position, rather than last year's 2nd place finisher Andreas Klöden.

Live updates:

cyclingnews.com | Live updates

VeloNews | Live Stage 1 updates

BBC Sport | Tour de France stage one

Eurosport | Fromentine - Ile de Noirmoutier ITT

letour.fr | Real-time rider splits

Armstrong readying for Tour start

ThePaceLine.com (free reg. req.) | Sat, Jul 2 morning

The Paceline.com's Chris Brewer offers a couple of shots of Lance Armstrong prepping for today's time trial: He's got Armstrong with his (now-traditional) race jersey number 1, and with his latest aero helmet and Oakleys.