July 07, 2004
Lance in yellow..
Ah, me and my sport enthusiasms. Lance Armstrong took the yellow jersey (that of overall leader) today.
The US Postal Team of Lance Armstrong cruised to a pretty comfortable victory in the team time trial today. How this works is that each time is given a starting time five minutes apart and sent out in reverse order of their standing. So the team last in the standings (on aggregate time) is sent out first, and the best team last. As a consequence of their performance yesterday the US Postal team (the "Posties") went out last today.
The rules have been changed so that the Tour has minimized the impact of the team time trial on the overall standings. Heretofore, whatever you did (in terms of time) was added to your total time. So if you were in the lead group and finished ten minutes ahead of the next closest group, you gained ten minutes in the general classification (time).
Not any more. The maximum gap is ten seconds between positions (twenty for the second place team). So if you are fifth in the standings, and the gap between each team is ten seconds or more all you will lose is fifty seconds.
Unfortunate for the Posties because yet again (they won going away last year) they finished a good minute ahead of the second-place team (of Postal team defector Tyler Hamilton) and seventy-nine seconds ahead of Jan Ullrich's T-Mobile team (of the pink uniforms). So where in the past Lance would have gained sixty-seven seconds on Tyler and seventy-nine on Ullrich he gained only twenty and thirty seconds respectively.
It's a pity but it will lend itself to a tighter race in the end. Though I dare say that it looks like Lance is strong this year and barring injury or misfortune he will dominate yet again.
He looks happier too. Having a supportive and delectable girlfriend has to help.
Posted by artandscience at July 7, 2004 04:36 PMHe wasted energy - should have won by fewer seconds as the excess is struck.
Another great use of the taxpayers' money - support a multi-millionaire with our tax dollars.
Posted by: Thomas Pindelski at July 8, 2004 07:32 AMI'm sure he used more energy than he "needed" in a strict sense but half the battle in the Tour de France is mental. He (and his team) demonstrated a dramatic superiority of training, equipment and will with the margin of their victory. Sort of put an exclamation point on their victory.
Yes.. I'm not convinced of the utility of the US Postal Service supporting the team. But two things come to mind: is not the Postal Service actually a private corporation, not a governmental entity, and are they to blame for not making adequate use of the marketing potential of the team?
For God's sake, this is the team that has won the Tour de France FIVE times in a row. You would think their marketing literature would scream it. I would have Lance's face on the side of every postal van.
But that's just because I believve if you pay for marketing you should make use of it. The Postal team COULD NOT have performed any better than they have over the last five years.. You really don't see that sort of return in investment in sports marketing very often.
Posted by: stefan at July 9, 2004 12:40 AM