I know it's just the prologue, but some of the riders have to be thinking "here we go again". Lots of rumors about Lance being done after the Ventoux time trial and then he beats Tyler and Jan by 15 seconds and almost wins the prologue. Obviously, it's a long way to Paris, and just waking up with a sore throat one day might end up meaning a DNF, but Lance won't be one of the riders making excuses, offering explanations or wondering what happened today.

Didn't see the race myself (no OLN) but I would imagine that both Lance and the entire team are happy with the result.

George got top 10
Floyd only 1s and 1 place behind Jan @ 7:08
Eki another second (and 2 places) behind

A pretty good showing in my books.

Tyler's just 18s back too. And he stayed upright. Schweet.

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Be careful posting results, especially in the subject, you're bound to upset someone eventually -- see http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=147862

Hey dip wad, don't post the results in the title. Some of us have to work for a living and can't watch the live coverage.

riders don't have to make excuses today...the prologue is just what it is...a prologue...most riders don't really care about it. Ullrich didn't seem overly concerned (he usually has very avg. prologues in the Tour(s)).
He knows he can TT with Lance.
Mayo and Heras dropped some time, but that was to be expected. Small climbers tend to lose big chunk of times on very short TT made for very powerful riders.
Hamilton lost a bit too and usually does a bit better in a prologue.

As for making excuses etc. if I remember correctly, Jan didn't come up with any last year during the tour, he raced and lost whereas Lance had quite a few as to why he won by only 1' and change.

If Jan finished second in the Tour, you won't see any excuses coming from him...even if you read the german press...not his style.

couldn't agree more!

the swiss kid, is not just an unknown rider that got lucky. He has a history of winning prologues. This prologue was his top priority race of the whole season, which I think is quit cool for someone that knows he'll never be able to win the whole thing but is fast over 10 min.

Yeah.

I like Ullrich because he is more layed back. I saw an interview with him and he said that it's Lance's only mission to win the tour. If he comes in second it's a lost tour for him.

For Ullrich there's no obligation, and even though he really wants to win (which I think he will), it's not all or nothing like it is for Lance.

"most riders don't really care about it. Ullrich didn't seem overly concerned"

If he isn't concerned, I think he ought to be. Even if he doesn't care about some silly short stage, dropping almost a quarter of last years margin of victory in 6.x km doesn't strike me as the greatest of tactics. I agree with what you say though, about Jan being a class act. I don't recall anything remotely resembling whining from him anywhere along the way, regarding 2nd place, injuries, suspension etc. He seems to be a real sportsman at a time when those numbers are few.

Ken

They showed on Eurosport that the gap between Armstrong and Ullrich in the Prolouge in the past few years had moved between 5-20 seconds. That's why I don't think he's concerned.

I was just looking at this:

2003
1 Bradley Mc Gee (Aus) FDJeux.com 7.26.16 (52.45)
2 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 0.00.08
3 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0.02.09
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 0.02.11
5 Victor Hugo Pena (Col) US Postal-Berry Floor 0.06.08
6 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 0.06.27
7 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 0.07.39
8 Joseba Beloki (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.09.17

2001:
1 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Festina 9.20 (52.714)
2 Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Er 0.03
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 0.04
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Telekom 0.07
5 Florent Brard (Fra) Festina
6 Santiago Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.10
7 Joseba Beloki (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.13

2000:
1. David Millar (GBr) Cofidis 19.03.11 (51.968 km/h)
2. Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 0.02
3. Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 0.13
4. Jan Ullrich (Ger) Telekom-ARD 0.14
5. David Canada (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 0.16
6. Alex Zulle (Swi) Banesto 0.20
7. Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal Service 0.21

So this year's margin is the largest (edit: of the most recent four), but not by much. Still given how tight last year's race was, I wouldn't be blase about giving up time anywhere if I were trying to win. Again, no disrespect to Jan, I just find the idea of being "unconcerned" about losing time puzzling, even if it's "only" the prologue.

Ken

Damn freestyle! How many times do we have to say not to post results in the subject??!!

You are now officially on my shitlist.

oh no i am on jaylew-post-in-blue-letters-so-my-posts-stand-out's shitlist.

you guys forget one thing...it's day one...
you look at Ullrich, you didn't seem flat out and lost 15'', then you look at Lance, who was clearly "doing" the prologue so was Tyler...just for a few seconds...

maybe he got them and these few kms flat out will be paid cash later...It's not like you can say "oh he won by 1' last year and already got 15'' "...it's a 3 week stage race with a lot of tactics involved.

Usually Jan improves throughout the Tour and doesn't need/want to go flat out to gain a few seconds.

That attitude shouldn't surprise you as most of the Lance's fans here agreed that last year, USPS made a mistake by allowing Lance to go flat out in the TTT to get extra seconds that cost him a lot later (that was one of the excuses later anyway)...

Maybe Ullrich's approach is that, he'd better lose as little energy as possible before the TTT and the mountains and wasting energy for something in which at most you'll get 15'' doesn't make sense at day 1.

Pretty much like in IM racing when the runners let the riders go.

That 60k+ Individual TT is gonna play a large roll in the outcome of the tour. It's not completely flat so it's gonna be interesting.

Yeah you're right. I didn't change the title because that dip wad comment pissed me off. Who the hell says dip wad anyway?

I am not that sure.
On paper Phonak, USPS and T-mobile are very close in terms of TTT abilities. So it wouldn't change much for them.
But I think even with the new rule, this will weed out Heras and Mayo.
It could be a major factor if it's raining that day...

in any case, it's so hard to tell...stage 3 or 4 of the Tour 99 was not supposed to be a key stage for the Tour, yet Zulle crashed and gave away 6' of his 7' deficit just there...

that's the cool thing with the Tour, you just never know.

It's not like you can say "oh he won by 1' last year and already got 15''

Hmmm. That isn't what I meant to say. If your point is that Jan conceded 15 seconds today in a tactical move because the effort involved in keeping them would have been too high at this point in the race, I say- that's interesting. I wouldn't have thought a 100% vs 95% seven minute effort followed by three relatively "easy" days would be that important, but what do I know. I took the original statement to say, "the prologue is short and inconsequential, therefore it doesn't really matter what happens as long as I don't crash." To that I respond, as above, that 15 seconds is 15 seconds, whether you lose it in Liege or on Alpe d'Huez. But as you say, the race is three weeks long, and time will tell.

Ken

I bet Liberty Seguros will be right there in the TTT when it's all said and done.

The first day doesn't mean anything other than Lance is there to contend, and that he is feeling good right now. If he would have finished 15" back of Ulrich, everyone would have been saying he was out this year.

Jan typically spins at a lower candence anyways right? So he will naturally look smoother. I thought both Jan and Lance looked smooth, whereas tyler was all over the place. Jan definitely did look like he felt the most comfortable though.

I doubt, however, that any of those guys could fry themselves on a 7 minute race, or would worry about it that much.

I think you are 100% correct when you say, this is only day 1.

Everyone's just all jacked up and ready to see how these guy's are feeling. It's all speculation. It definitely raises an eyebrow that niether Hamilton or Jan were in the top 10, but really doesn't mean anything, anymore than lance loses 2 minutes last month on Mt. Ventoux. They don't award the winner after tune-up races, and they don't award the winner after the prologue. It is still going to be a dog-fight, that is for sure, I can't wait.

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"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."

dude, if Tyler wasn't all over the place, I'd say "it's not a good day for him"...that's his trademark, as much as Lance spinning, and Jan mashing...

It always makes me chuckle to see him ride all over his bike, but boy that surely is efficient!!! (wonder what would show in the wind tunnel up in Seattle when he rides like that considering these guys were saying that taking a deep breath actually shows on their graphs...gotta generate some drag...)

anyway, who cares who wins at the end??
what matters is that we get a great Tour, with 3 weeks of great racing, drama, joy, fun, looks, so we can waste even more time here debating on

-the look
-did jan wait?
-are they on something?
-etc...

but then, I'd still like jan to win! :-)

"Ever notice I post in blue only when including someone else's post so as to easily distinguish the new material from the old?"

No, he didn't notice because he's a dip wad.

Apparently Francois is correct. From the cyclingnews.com stage report:

<Perhaps Ullrich's performance could be explained by the fact that his T-Mobile teammate Sergeui Ivanov crashed earlier in the prologue and team boss Walter Godefroot then told Ullrich not to take any unnecessary risks in the six kilometre test.

Jan wasn't much concerned by his result, saying "today was an OK performance for me. At the end, we're going for minutes in the Tour, not for seconds.">

Just take care of the minutes, and the seconds will take care of themselves...

Ken

You guys go easy on Dipwad - er Freestyle - remember he's only 14 or 15 (if I recall correctly). It's often easy to forget who hides behind these screennames!