TDF Update: Stage 9
Category: Sports (Pro/College/HS)...
Posted Monday, July 14, 2003 at 10:21 AM [GMT-6]

Stage 9 of the Tour de France provided some of the most dramatic scenes in recent memory. Alexandre Vinokourov of Team Telekom won his first ever TdF stage and moved into second place overall, 21 seconds behind Lance Armstrong.

But it's what happened behind Vinokourov that captures your attention. At the end of Stage 8 yesterday, Spaniard Joseba Beloki was just 40 seconds out of first place, overall. Beloki was considered a legitimate threat to Lance's dominance this year, and was proving that prediction accurate. Moving into the last few kilometers of today's stage, Beloki had hung tough on Armstrong's wheel, refusing to be shaken. Then disaster struck, literally.

In an attempt to chase down Vinokourov, Beloki and Armstrong were pushing the edge on the downhill run. Suddenly, Beloki's rear wheel began to slide sideways on the hot asphalt... then the tire popped off the rim... and Beloki went down, hard. Sadly, his Tour was ended, and we last saw him be carried off in an ambulance. At this point, we can only guess at his injuries -- elbow and hip is the commentator's guess -- and wish him the best.

Lance was on his rear wheel when this occurred, and in an amazing display of instinct and bike-handling skill, he made the split-second decision not to try to swerve back onto the pavement, risking the same fate as Beloki. Instead, he instantly recognized that he was at the beginning of a switchback -- and launched his bike across the open field, rejoining the course at the end of the turn. The road master turned cross country expert! Lance was able to get back in the pack and finish sufficiently well to retain the yellow jersey.

Luck. This year, most experts have been talking about how much of the good stuff Lance has experienced in winning his four Tours. Today, we saw that luck really is the juncture where preparation meets skill. Lance rides mountain and cross country bikes in the off-season. Why? Well, perhaps, just in case he might someday have to ride across a field during the Tour de France! (The fact that his fragile road tires didn't flat during this escapade...well, that I can only attribute to pure, blind luck! In fact, Lance just stated in an interview that he was waiting for the tires to blow as he moved across that field.)

Speaking of tires, let's return to Beloki's predicament. He might have saved himself from the skid, if the tire had stayed on the rim. Not everyone may be aware that the tire and rim combination that the pros ride differs from what you and I use on our street bikes (even apart from the $2000 price tags!). Pro racers use what's called a "sew-up" or "tubular" tire; the typical consumer bike uses a "clincher" tire. The differences are significant. The clincher tire has a stiff bead that locks into a channel molded into the rim. When the tire is inflated, it is very securely attached to the rim.

The tubular, on the other hand, is glued onto the rim. The rim is shaped to hold the tire, but the contact is much less secure than with a clincher. This can lead to the dangerous situation we saw today, where the hot weather may have softened the glue, and the sideways skid put it over the edge...literally.

Why use tubulars, if they have this tendency? They are lighter and have less rolling resistance, meaning they're faster. And, except for the most extreme conditions, they don't present a danger to the riders.

Today, of course, we saw that the entire premise of the TdF is extreme conditions. Beloki paid the price.

Tomorrow's stage 10 is 219.5 km, mostly downhill. Should be fast, and the strategy of attacking Lance and the USPS team will undoubtedly continue. The pace will be hard in anticipation of Wednesday's rest day. It's a cliché, of course, but still true -- there's a lot of racing to come, and as we saw today, no one should take anything for granted.