How long can US rider David Zabriskie keep the yellow jersey? Probably for at least another day in the relatively flat conditions in the early stages of the Tour de France.
The 25-year-old Utah native held onto the leader's jersey for a second day by taking Lance Armstrong's advice: Stay among the top 20 riders in the peloton, according to Zabriskie's post-race interview on OLN this morning.
That advice also could have come from Team CSC's director Bjarne Riis, himself a former Tour winner in 1996. CSC protected Zabriskie in the front of the peloton for most of the 112 miles between Challans and Les Essarts today.
And that advice to tuck in near the front of the peloton could work for Monday's Stage 3 — another relatively flat ride between La Châtaigneraie and Tours, 131 miles. Stage 4, on Tuesday, is a team time trial in which Zabriskie's Team CSC will need to have all pistons firing to stay ahead of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team or T-Mobile.
Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won today's stage in a sprint, coming from behind Robbie McEwen (Davitamon Lotto). Remember Boonen zipping past US rider George Hincapie (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling) at the end of the Paris-Roubaix this spring? It was just about the same thing.
Overall, Armstrong remains in second, just 2 seconds behind Zabriskie. T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov has dropped to fourth, 53 seconds behind, after Credit Agricole's Laszlo Bodrogi slipped into third place.
Other Armstrong challengers: Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) in 12th 1:08 behind the Zabriskie; Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) in 14th, 1:13 behind the leader; Ivan Basso (CSC) in 21st, 1:26 behind; Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile) in 51st, 2:01 behind.
Among the other US riders in the Tour de France, Armstrong is in 2nd place, 2 seconds behind; teammate George Hincapie in 5th, 57 seconds behind; Floyd Landis (Phonak) in 6th, 1:02 behind; Bobby Julich (CSC) in 11th, 1:07 behind; Leipheimer in 14th, 1:13 behind; Chris Horner (Saunier Duval-Prodir) in 53rd, 2:01 behind; Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon) in 63rd, 2:09 behind; and Guido Trenti (QuickStep) in 175th, 3:21 behind.
The really amazing statistic for me, though, is that today's distance equaled a long century ride and the peloton covered it in 3 hours and 51 minutes. I thought I had reached the peak of conditioning when I broke the 6-hour limit a few years ago.
Full results and race reports are available at CyclingNews and VeloNews, as well as the English language Tour de France site. Check out the Biking Bis Tour de France page for other links.
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