BORE de France?

   This is fairly long entry, since I’d skipped a couple weeks, and my previous topic had little to do with cycling anyway. I thought I’d first give an update on some of my projects, and then get into my title topic.

   We had a stretch of humid weather, which isn’t ideal for painting, but I was as patient as possible and finally completed the top tube of the Guerciotti frame. Here is a before-and-after shot of the top tube, after I had removed some of the masking, and with the signature decal location indicated before its actual application.

 

   I had mentioned before that I would be doing some spot-spray touch ups - the worst area being the rear stays. Here is a series of photos, showing first the damage, then a couple angles of my work, including re-striping in white around the chrome.

 

   The build was fairly smooth, but for the finicky Dura-Ace rear derailleur, caused by the hanger being slightly bent out of alignment. I purchased a tool to make that correction/adjustment a couple of weeks ago from a shop that was going out of business and was happy to have it on hand!
   The buyer and I had discussed some finishing touches, and he really liked the leather look on my Pinarello project, but I explained to him that with the lighter colors on his bicycle, a darker contrasting shade would look better and he agreed. The final purchase was a wheelset, and since this bike has a mix of modern and vintage, I think the conservative look of FSA wheels goes with everything very well.

 

   The Saeco-Cannondale bicycle project had hit a standstill when the Cinelli Alter stem was unfortunately lost somewhere between here and Poland. I received a full refund, but that left me facing another search for this rare part. Finally I got lucky, and although I ended up paying over twice as much as the original purchase, I still stayed within my planned budget overall.
   I had been putting this bike together slowly over the last couple of months, so when the stem arrived, it was just a matter of hooking up the brakes and derailleurs to the “cockpit”. The yellow Fizik bar tape was the final step before snapping some pictures.

 

   My project was treated to some great P.R. recently when author Eben Weiss, better known as Bike Snob NYC, mentioned in his blog that he would rather buy my “Cipollini-equipped, custom-curated bicycle” than Specialized self-professed “fastest bicycle ever built”. Maybe I should offer to lower the price for him!

 

   I had to disagree with Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby’s opinion that the Tour was a “great race this year”. The relatively small margin overall really only came down to the second last stage, since the final is merely a parade into Paris, until the sprinters wind things up on the Champs-Élysées. Sure, there were some great individual efforts on individual stages, but they always involved someone not in the battle for the maillot jaune.
   When Chris Froome beat everyone comfortably in the first real mountain stage, just days after Nairo Quintana’s Movistar team again lost time during a windy grand tour stage (this has to be the third or fourth time!), I had a feeling Team Sky (the evil empire) would kill the race. Their deep roster of climbers just gets on the front, keeps a high tempo and discourages any attacks until late, when Froome can either launch an attack (not often) or at least hang in close enough to maintain his lead (yeah, that’s the way).
   The really frustrating thing happening these days in the pro peloton is that so many teams become resigned to losing that they place a ridiculous amount of value on top ten finishes and actually contribute to the negative racing. Some guy on Team A sits in sixth place and sees a rider from Team B, who is just behind him overall, attack. Instead of making the race leader, or at least someone higher in the standings, cover the move, he sees his “higher also-ran status” at risk and takes off after the attack. Now the rider on Team C currently in fourth doesn’t want his spot taken, so he goes – and then third place goes, then second…
   Is this what these guys dreamed about all their lives, finishing seventh in the Tour de France? Why don’t the lower-placed riders recognize that by forcing the teams of the higher ranks (let’s say at least the podium-placed cyclists) to cover those moves, it will eventually wear these teams down, keep their own team fresher, and open up chances to compete for top spots later, not only in individual stages, but over the course of the three week Tour.
   As Greg Lemond so beautifully put it, “Riders have to be willing to risk their second place standing for a chance to actually WIN the Tour de France!” Why don’t today’s teams realize this is why guys like Lemond were winning the Tour in the past, even when they might not have had the strongest team. Such was definitely the case when he rode with, really, a bunch of nobodies on his ADR team in 1989. Sure, Lemond was fantastic, but he rode smart and when the time came to be aggressive, he went after it - and that was why he won!   

   Even after all of my ranting, I feel Nairo Quintana (photo right) really should have won, and misread the situation. He sent teammate Alejandro Valverde up the road during the Alpe d’Huez stage, with the idea to bridge up to him and combine efforts to dig into Froome’s leading time gap. Valverde was sitting in third overall, and probably would have triggered some reaction, except that Team Sky knew this was coming and were willing to give him some room and keep an eye on Quintana, the bigger threat.
   When Quintana finally took off, he and Valverde had a decent lead, but the Colombian had too much pace to make the combination work. Valverde was fading, and when they looked back and saw Sky on the front working hard to bring them back, the duo backed off. What they hadn’t noticed was that Froome’s teammates had split from their leader a bit, and he looked to be on the ropes. I really think if Quintana had ditched Valverde and gone on his own at that moment, he had a good shot of winning the Tour.
   He ended up making his move with too little road left, and yet still managed to claw back to within a minute and a half. He ended up linking up with another teammate who had gone off in an earlier breakaway, and they worked very effectively together. Perhaps this may have turned out even better had the earlier move panned out - fun speculating.