Stage 3: And Now For Something Entirely Different

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Will Frischkorn of Boulder, Colorado
nearly won Stage 3.
Photo: Graham Watson  

The first three stages of the 2008 Tour de France have been mass-start road races, but tomorrow’s fourth stage will be entirely different. Stage 4 is the first individual time trial of the race, and instead of riding together as a big pack, each rider will go it alone over 29.5 kilometers. It’s often referred to as “the race of truth” and it will be the first major test for the men hoping to ride into Paris in the yellow jersey.

 

An individual time trial is an excruciatingly difficult event. Every rider must go it alone, without the help of drafting behind anyone else or even the ability to grab a water bottle from the team car. Like every other stage, the winner is the rider who covers the distance fastest, but since the racers ride alone we’ll have to wait until everyone finishes and rely on the stopwatch to determine the winner.

 

For the overall yellow jersey contenders, this is a crucial stage and an opportunity to gain significant time on rivals. Some excel in this very specialized discipline while others struggle, and the Tour has been won and lost several times by stellar and disappointing performances against the clock. Perhaps the most famous time trial in the Tour de France was the final stage of the 1989 race when Greg Lemond overcame a 50-second deficit to take the yellow jersey right off the back of Laurent Fignon. Some of the Tour’s greatest champions, including 5-time winner Miguel Indurain and 7-time champion Lance Armstrong relied on dominating time trial prowess to build and maintain sizable winning margins over their competition.

 

In this year’s Tour, Australian Cadel Evans and Russian Denis Menchov will be looking to distance themselves from the likes of Spanish favorites Alejandro Valverde and Carlos Sastre, riders who are brilliant climbers but relatively weak individual time trialists. Unfortanately for Evans and Menchov, the Stage 4 time trial is only 29.5 kilometers, or about 18 miles. That’s not a lot of real estate over which to gain a lot of time. In previous years, the time trial in the Tour’s opening week has been between 47-55 kilometers, leading to time gaps that were more than two minutes wide. Tomorrow’s shorter distance is good news for Valverde and Sastre, as it will limit their losses and keep them closer to their rivals as the race heads into the mountains.

 

However, as important as the time trial is to the overall contenders, the stage is likely to be won by a specialist. There are a handful of riders who are uniquely talented and specially trained to perform at their absolute best in time trials. Chief among them is Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara. He’s won the World Championship in this discipline for the past two years and is the odds-on favorite to win tomorrow. The man who may spoil the party for Cancellara, however, is Britain’s David Millar. He won the opening time trial at the 2000 Tour de France to claim the first yellow jersey that year, and he’s been eyeing tomorrow’s time trial ever since his Garmin-Chipotle team received a wild-card entry into this year’s race.

 

The bikes you’ll see used in tomorrow’s race are also entirely different from the machines racers use during road races. Aerodynamics are critically important when you have to power through the wind all by yourself, and riders and bike manufacturers spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel optimizing equipment and the riders’ positions on their bikes. Every opportunity to reduce aerodynamic drag is taken into consideration. Riders wear tear-drop shaped helmets to smooth airflow around their heads and over their backs, skin-tight clothing with seams carefully placed to direct airflow, and even shoe covers. Even small things like brake cables make a big difference, so the bikes are designed to hide them inside the frame instead of exposing them to the wind. And riders use solid disc wheels in the rear of the bike and deep-section carbon wheels on the front.

 

Most of all, riders put themselves in an aerodynamic tucked position on the bike, with their arms close together and extended out to the front… much like a ski racer. Time trial bikes and riding positions are designed for speed, not comfort or even stability, and they are difficult to control. The saddle position is high to allow riders to generate as much power as possible with every pedal stroke, but the handlebars are low to reduce wind resistance. The rider’s center of gravity is shifted forward compared to their normal road racing bikes, making steering hyper-responsive, and when they’re in their aerodynamic position their hands are nowhere near their brake levers, which makes it difficult to adjust your speed if you come into a corner too fast.

 

The stakes are extremely high in Stage 4 of the 2008 Tour de France, and it’s likely that by the end of the day at least one man’s chances of winning the yellow jersey will be seriously diminished. To win the Tour, you have to ride well every single day and perform exceptionally at least once. Stage 4 may be the shortest ride of the entire race, but expect it to be one of the most exciting.

 

CURRENT RACE LEADERS:
  Overall: Romain Feillu (Agritubel)
  Points: Kim Kirchen (Team Columbia)
  King of the Mountains: Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom)
  Best Young Rider: Romain Feillu (Agritubel)

For more info: Visit www.trainright.com before July 31 for special coaching offers from Carmichael Training Systems.