Tour De France Examiner

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Chris Carmichael - Tour De France Examiner

Alejandro Valverde takes Stage 1,
and with it the yellow jersey.
Photo: Graham Watson 

Hat’s off the to the folks who designed the finish of the first stage of the 2008 Tour de France, and congratulations to the riders for making it through the fast and furious final three kilometers in one piece. Pushed downhill by a raging 30mph tailwind, the pack of nearly 200 riders had to negotiate a tricky right hand turn onto a narrow bridge at more than 40 mph. From there it was uphill for the next 1500 meters – almost a mile – with a race leader’s yellow jersey waiting for whoever reached the finish line first. It was a nail-biting finale that bodes well for an exciting Tour over the next three weeks.

 

The man who conquered today’s finish and pulled on the first leader’s jersey of the 2008 Tour de France was Alejandro Valverde. A Spaniard who has the talent to roll into Paris as the overall winner three weeks from now, Valverde won the Dauphine Libere in June – a one-week race in France which many riders use as a final tune-up event for the Tour de France. And just a week ago he won the Spanish National Road Racing Championship. Clearly he’s in great condition right now, but it remains to be seen whether he can maintain this high level of fitness for three more weeks.

 

Conditioning for the Tour de France is unlike any other sporting event. The race consists of 21 days of racing over a total of 23 days. That means two days off in three weeks. This isn’t the NFL where you get a week off between games, or even baseball where you might have the occasional double header but not 21 games in 23 days. And there’s no bench, either. You have to cover every single kilometer of the course just to stay in the race. And if you want to win it, you have to cover them faster than everyone else.  

 

You need extreme fitness in order to win the Tour de France, but fitness isn’t static. Any athlete (and this goes for any sport, not just cycling) can only be at his or her absolute best for a limited period of time each season. They can be in very good shape year round, but peak performance is only achievable for a short time – a few weeks normally. When Lance Armstrong was racing, he could maintain peak fitness for about seven weeks, and it was essential that we planned his training to get him to that crucial point just before the start of the Tour de France.

 

Inconsistency has been Alejandro Valverde’s weakness as a cyclist. There’s no doubt he’s one of the top racers in the world, having won major one-day races and short stage races. But the big question looming over his head is whether he can hold it all together and deliver peak performances day in and day out for three straight weeks. He’s obviously started out well with a victory on Stage 1, but his pre-Tour wins at the Dauphine Libere and the Spanish national championships make some people wonder if he hit peak form too early. If that’s the case, he’ll ride great this week and next, but fall apart in the third week of the Tour de France.

 

Fatigue is the Tour de France rider’s number one enemy, and recovery is his most valuable commodity. As a rider you try to conserve energy wherever possible, by riding in the draft behind other riders, consuming massive amounts of food and fluids, going to bed early, and even sitting or laying down whenever possible instead of standing. And while wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France is a tremendous honor, it places a lot of pressure on the rider wearing it and on his entire team. Remember, there are 21 distinct days of racing, and to win the Tour de France you only have to be the leader on the last day.

 

The yellow jersey will trade hands several times before someone decisively claims it for his own. In fact, don’t be surprised if Valverde and his team only half-heartedly defend the yellow jersey over the next few days. They won’t let just anyone take it from them, least of all the other handful of rivals who have legitimate chances of winning the entire Tour de France, but they’re also not going to expend huge amounts of the team’s limited energy to prevent an non-threatening opportunist or sprinter from taking it – and the pressure and responsibility that comes with it – for a while.

 

Too much too soon from Valverde? No. The yellow jersey was there for the taking and the finish was tailor-made for his strengths as a rider. And the final kilometer was so hard for everyone that he didn't really burn much more energy than anyone else. His effort just paid off a whole lot better. 

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