The Power of the Mind

I hope no one is betting on this Tour, as you just never know what could happen.

I had a feeling Landis would come back strong, but I never expected it to work out so well for him.

I was out on a longer training ride when I heard about Landis’ attack. Then I thought that maybe Pereiro would pay the favor back and not chase too hard and let Floyd get a gap. That would also force CSC to take control, saving Pereiro’s team and maybe bettering his chances of holding on to the yellow jersey. The chance of Floyd’s move working seemed pretty slim, but he proved us all wrong.

From the looks of it, Landis was out to prove to everyone that he is still in this race. I think he surprised himself with the outcome as well.

I was just telling some local riders that I thought Landis was the strongest rider and he deserved to win the Tour. But even the best guy in the race can have a bad day, although no one ever thought that you could have such a bad day and then have such an amazing day the next.

That is the power of the mind.

Look at Pereiro. He also lost close to 30 minutes on the first mountain stage, and when he found himself fighting for the yellow he became a new man. And now he has made it through the mountains still in yellow. He’ll need to fight hard to hold the jersey in the time trial, but on paper I think Landis has what it takes to put a couple of minutes on both Pereiro and Sastre.

But it's a new Tour and anything can happen. For all we know, Sastre could pull off the time trial of his life and win the Tour.

Tomorrow can be a stage for Robbie, but chances are a breakaway will work. Everyone is tired and our team probably doesn't want to risk the green jersey when it’s easier to just get points for lower places. Not that Robbie doesn't want to go for another stage, but I have a feeling he will let the others lead the charge, and, if it’s a possibility, the team will make the effort at the end.

Cadel has been looking very good, but he has been lacking that last bit to answer the hard attacks. He seems be able to cover all the major moves at the end, but seems to over extend himself. He suffers at the end a bit. I still feel he has had a great Tour. He has been fighting hard to stay in the game. I think he will be one of the key rides in the final time trial, but maybe not enough to get him on the podium.

My recovery is coming along. I have been seeing my therapist, and my joints are moving better and better everyday. The separation is not too bad and I am able to ride without causing further damage.

Taking 10 days off of the bike was not my choice, but I needed to heal properly, and yes, it takes a bit longer to come back to form after a long break. Sometimes it is best to wait until the body is ready to make a move forward so that you are not creating imbalances in the body.

Let’s see what happens...

My Recovery & Tour rest day

It’s been almost two weeks after my crash and just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back in business. I was already a bit in need of a break, so I decided to wait until my body was ready to ride outside.

After 10 days off the bike, mostly because my shoulder didn't allow me to ride outdoors just yet, I started with an easy one and half hour ride to warm me up. The body was real stiff and I began to find what part of my body felt good and what part was better than expected.

I also found that my hip was a bit worse than I had expected. I could tell that my shoulder was very sore, but that I would be able to handle training outside. I will probably have to split up my longer days so I don’t overload the shoulder, but things were looking good.

The second day was a two hour ride, and already after an hour my shoulder was acting up. This is probably normal and it will just get better and better every day, or at least I hope so.

Today I decided to test the limits with a 3 hour ride and the body responded a bit better. I did stop half way to give the shoulder a break, but the progression looks positive.

So I’ve been keeping up with my teammates to see how they are coming along in the Tour. I always make sure I get back in time to watch the Spanish Euro sport coverage. Let me tell you, they don't know what they are talking about sometimes. It’s so funny because I usually never get a chance to watch bike racing and when I do I end up having to listen to people that are, at best, taking a wild guess on what is going on in the race. Anyway, I can go on about some of the commentating but I wont. I just hit the mute button.

Looks like Robbie is having a perfect Tour. Even without me, he has been fairing real well. Gert gave him some great lead outs after I left and set him up well to hold the green jersey. I know Gert has not been feeling well lately, so Robbie has been a bit on his own. But if any sprinter had to play it on his own, the best guy for the job would be Robbie.

Not taking anything away from Robbie, but the sprints have been a bit more out of control and the speeds look a bit slower at the end, playing perfectly into Robbie's forte, which is coming out of a box at a slightly slower speed and accelerating faster than anyone else in the world.

I think Boonen would have preferred faster lead outs, but he can only partly blame his team on that. It sounds like two of his key lead out guys where left out of the Tour to have a stronger climbing team. Also the fact that Milram doesn’t have Petacchi to lead out has made the power lead outs a bit harder on Quick-Step. Leaving the door wide open for guys like Robbie and Freire that can come out of the box faster than anyone else.

Quick-Step has yet to figure out that you need to wait a bit longer and come from a bit further back with a strong lead out. I think they hit the wind a bit too early and end up leaving the last part of the lead out too far away from the finish. In the Tour, you need to be smart and gamble to be a bit further back where you are more protected from the wind.


When it comes to the race for the yellow jersey it seems to me that Landis is the best man at the moment. Rabobank has been racing a bit more aggressively, but not as smart. At the same time, they don't have a choice as they are the second best at the moment and need to find a weakness in Landis.

Cadel is looking great at the moment, as well. He has been climbing right up there with the best and he usually gets better as time goes on. Cadel needs to play it safe as he doesn't have the team to control the race. With Horner being sick and a bit down, he needs to play it safe and follow. His best chance is to find a weakness in Landis in the last mountain stage or time trial.

Looks like Levi is back to his old self, but a bit too late. It will be almost impossible for him to gain the time back on the others. His best chance is to break back into the top 5 and get a stage win.

I had Kloden as one of my favorites for the yellow, but he seems to be suffering in the mountains more than his normal self. That's the thing, we all try to peak for the Tour, but it doesn’t always works out.

Look at George, for instance. He is a good friend and we have been training together leading up to the Tour. He has probably worked harder than any other year to be at his best for this Tour, and it didn't work out as he planned. I have not talked to him on why he is not riding as well as he wanted, but it goes to show you that you can work so hard and it can all fall apart right at the end.

I think we are in for a crazy battle in the next 3 mountain stages. After talking to some of the guys, the Tour has gotten a bit carried away with these stages and there will be some crazy suffering to be done. So much for the Tour de France looking out for the rider’s health.

Stage 4 & 5, July 5 & 6

Thanks for all the great e-mails concerning how I'm recovering. Glad to say that, day by day, things are getting better.

My head injury seems to be coming along with no complications other than some swelling in the face.

Shoulder is still not very mobile but getting easier to get out of bed.

I've been keeping up with the race and in contact with Robbie to see how the team has been fairing without me.

Before I left, I told Robbie I had a feeling Gert would step up to the plate for him on the 4th stage. And he did with perfection. It took a lot of coaching from Robbie, but it sounds like he was able to control Gert's power.

Little history on Gert: the guy is very powerful and fast (very fast), but it’s sometimes hard to control his power to use at the right time. He is young and sometimes lacks the confidence and experience of when to make the right move. And in the Tour with all the crowds it’s very hard to talk and keep in communication so you’re almost on autopilot.

So Robbie tells me that he told Gert he needed to jump with 400 meters from the finish and get him to under 200 meters just around the bend. Gert did it almost to perfection and jumped with 420 meters, dropping Robbie off exactly in position where he felt he could drive it all the way to the line.

It was also cool to see Robbie dedicate the victory to me, as I couldn't be there for him. He knew how much it meant to me and how hard it was for me not to be there. He also knew exactly what happened in the crash, so he was amazed to see me walking after such a thing.

We also talked about the 5th stage and what happened. Sounds like Gert lost a little concentration on where exactly the finish was and thought he saw 200 meters to go when it was really 600 meters. You could see that with 300 meters to go he was out of steam and Robbie had no choice but to wait and see if he could jump on another wheel as they came by.

I think this caught the others by surprise and they came by maybe a bit slower than normal making it easy to sling shot from further back like Friere did. If Gert would have timed his efforts correctly, it would have been impossible for anyone to come from that far back. But when Robbie had no choice but to allow the speed to drop---it was just what happens. Just like the stage Casper won when he came off my wheel from behind to sling past Bonnen and Robbie as they slowed.

This is Gert's first Tour and he’s still getting the hang of it. I have a feeling he will be able to put things together at least one more time for Robbie. “Two stage wins is not so bad”, I told Robbie, and he said with a small laugh, "Yeah, your right."

I told Robbie that it killed me not being there to really get things down right, but the pain was also killing me, too, so there was no way I could be there now.

Still plenty of stages for Robbie, and I will keep a close eye on things.

Stage 3: Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg, July 4

I'm OK. I survived what I thought could have been a career ending crash.

Here is what happened. With about 54km left in the race, I was passing on the right side.

I was very aware of everything around me as we were hitting speeds of 70km/hr. I was on Robbie’s wheel as we moved up, when all of a sudden I could feel myself fly over my bike.

Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. All I could feel was that I hit my head and face real hard. I’d never crashed so hard on my head so I didn't know what to think.

My bike was nowhere in sight and all I could think of was my head and face. Then I got a look at Dekker’s face and I really panicked. I couldn’t feel my face at the time, so I thought it had completely opened up like Dekker’s had. But Hendrik, my director, assured me that I wasn't that bad.

I started to get the shakes from the shock and I was just trying to concentrate on controlling the pain. It felt like my shoulder was dislocated and my hand was broken. I had blood coming out of everywhere, but I couldn’t tell what was more serious.

I was finally put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. There, they ran me through a scanner to make sure I was OK. The x-rays also showed no break, which was good. But I knew my shoulder was still pretty bad, as I had dislocated it before.

After what seemed like days at the hospital, I was released and able to go home.

After talking with Robbie, I found out what exactly happened.

It happens that they had left some roadwork unfinished. There was a cut out of the road that seemed like a perfect box. Something that should not have been left uncovered, especially when the Tour knew we would be flying down this road. Robbie said he had no idea how he missed the hole, but he had no time to call it out. I was on his wheel and just dove straight into it without any idea it was there. Dekker probably had enough time just to realize what was happening, but no time to react.

So, there we both lay on the road with serious problems from a mistake that can only be blamed on the Tour de France organization. They need to understand that they put our lives in their hands with that mistake.

Stage 1: Strasbourg to Strasbourg, July 2

Today was a nervous day for the team. We knew we had a chance of winning the stage, so the pressure was on. I wasn’t sure of my form, since the last race (Switzerland) didn't go so well for me. Today, I would see how things have come along.

At the Start line, the crowds were big and the excitement was high. The weather was what I liked, so I was happy. We started and the race was very controlled for a bit. I was surprised knowing how active the French guys seem to be.

But then the first attack came, of course, from a Frenchman and the action began. But, again, I was surprised to see that it didn't take long and they were off. In the tour, it’s the norm for attacks to last an hour before anything gets away.

We settled into a good speed and Hushovd’s team took over. The break never got more than 5 minutes.

With 80km to go, we finally decided to give a hand with the other sprint teams. The gap came down steadily without too much effort. Everything was looking good and Robbie and I were feeling good.

We knew the pace would be high in the final kilometers with so many fresh guys. We had to be smart and plan our moves perfectly. In the last 5km, I was with Robbie and things looked good. He floated to the front and I kept a close eye on him. He followed Hushovd’s lead out and I stayed close behind for when he needed me. In the last 2km, I lost him a bit but he was still in good position.

We made the last corner with 1 km to go and Robbie sat on Hushovd’s lead out. With 600 meters to go, I started passing to find Robbie. I flew past everyone and was about to start the lead out when I saw Robbie sitting on Boonen’s wheel with 350 meters to go.

At that point, I thought it was best to leave things as they were. It was too far for Boonen to make it from there and he would end up leading Robbie perfectly to the line.So, I sat up and watched. At the moment I sat up, so did Boonen. Not sure what he was doing but he never got back up to speed.

The bad news is, as I sat up I had already brought Casper to the front. He jumped off my wheel and got the jump on the other guys. At that same moment, Boonen was trying to get going again, causing to box Robbie in.

Robbie had to wait for an opening, which came too late. He got up to speed and quickly started passing, but ran out of race to pass. He settled for second when we could clearly see that he was the fastest.

There you go, that's my first stage recap. By the way, we are also enjoying Fast Freddie Coffee every morning in the team bus.