American Tejay Van Garderen wore the King of the Mountain's polka-dot jersey in the Tour de France on Sunday. I couldn't find any information on whether or not an American had ever done that before, so I'm going to say he's the first and wait for someone to correct me. He was also Saturday's Most Combative rider. That was exciting. Not like coming back from a 2-1 deficit in extra time, down one player to win in a shootout, but exciting.
- Black Women Bike DC is trying to combat the stereotype that only white men bike. From 3 members, the group has grown to more than 60. The whole article is very good and worth reading.
- Here's a charrette powerpoint for Columbia Pike. As is so often the case, it's basically useless without the commentary. The bike section starts on slide 28. Slide 24 and 25, while not bike related, are pretty cool.
- VDOT reportedly offered the old W&OD trail Beltway Bridge to Arlington County. "Although staff at the county identified a possibly beneficial location for the bridge, it was determined that by the time it was taken down, all that would be left would be a couple of long, steel supports that would be very difficult to move anyway. So they declined." That's too bad.
- Video of a route from Lake Artemesia to Greenbelt via Branchville Ave.
- Tour du Port registration is open.
As phil and paul were constantly saying, Lemond won it once before but was wearing yellow at the time.
And you should have a link to the car accident with Fletcha. Terrible.
Posted by: charlie | July 11, 2011 at 08:45 AM
In Bob Roll's Versus Tour commentary, he said that Greg LeMond actually was the first American to earn the KoM jersey, but he was also in the Maillot Jaune at the time so he never actually wore the Polka Dot jersey.
Posted by: Math Geek | July 11, 2011 at 08:48 AM
Here's the video of the car/bike crash from yesterday's stage, on the NBC Sports website:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22825103/vp/43702680#43702680
(You have to wait for the short ad to play before seeing the clip from the Versus coverage.)
Since Comcast now owns NBC Universal as well as Versus, all of the online coverage has shifted to NBC's websites.
Posted by: Michael H. | July 11, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Amazingly, Hoogeland (the cyclist who flipped over and landed in the barbed-wire fence) took over the polka-dot jersey yesterday, despite the crash.
It remains to be seen whether he will recover enough to defend the jersey on Tuesday. (No stage today, the first rest day.)
Posted by: Michael H. | July 11, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Alors! Will the French stop at nothing! Have done a couple of endos in my time, I take my hat off to the riders who got back on and completed the stage. Those guys are freaking tough.
Posted by: Crickey7 | July 11, 2011 at 10:43 AM
I only half watch the tour while I do other things - like blog. So I saw the crash, but didn't realize it happened to riders in the front. I thought it was guys off the back. That sucks. The guy who went over the fence was much cooler than I would have been saying that no one was to blame. Which is wrong, but very gracious of him.
Posted by: washcycle | July 11, 2011 at 10:51 AM
Nice move by Voeckler to stay up, btw. Chapeau, dude.
Posted by: oboe | July 11, 2011 at 10:52 AM
yes, but he lost points with the tongue wagging later. Dare I say frog?
Driver and TV crew banned from TdF...
Posted by: charlie | July 11, 2011 at 12:23 PM
I didn't hear the post-race chatter. What did he say?
After his showing in 2004, I've always had a warm spot in my heart for the guy.
Posted by: oboe | July 11, 2011 at 02:41 PM
No, oboe, I mean actual tongue wagging....and it is a giant tongue. He sticks it out while racing. Disgusting.
I've kept Voeckler on any number of my fantasy TdF teams....the 2004 run, however, was the best.
Posted by: charlie | July 11, 2011 at 03:37 PM
Ah, right you mean like: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40624000/jpg/_40624754_voeckleragain.jpg
or
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40624000/jpg/_40624762_ullrichstruggle.jpg
:)
Posted by: oboe | July 11, 2011 at 04:19 PM
the horror, the horror.....
Posted by: charlie | July 11, 2011 at 04:38 PM
I was expecting a Gene Simmons-esque tongue, not this puny, blocky thing.
Posted by: Crickey7 | July 11, 2011 at 04:54 PM
Phil Liggett's commentary was hilarious. He was speaking in a steady tone, tossing out descriptions left and right. Then he casually mentioned that Voeckler has the largest tongue in cycling.
It was weird to see but I'll cut him some slack because it can't be easy pushing on in a small lead group like that, on long steady climbs. Michael Jordan used to stick out his tongue too.
Posted by: Michael H. | July 11, 2011 at 06:13 PM