2005 Tour de France

In pro cycling, it is an open secret that not a few deals happen inside team cars to determine the outcome of a race. For example, an Italian team might ask a favor from a French team to help them win an Italian race which is important to the team's sponsors. A few races later, the French team will ask the same favor from the Italian team.

The latest high profile incident happened in the 2003 World Championships in Hamilton, Canada when the eventual champion, Spaniard Igor Astarloa, claimed that Italian favorite Paolo Bettini offered him money during the finishing lap to help Bettini win. Bettini denied the allegation while Astarloa recanted his statements a few days later when threatened with a legal suit.

How do this "gifts" relate to Alexander Vinokourov's win today?

Here are the facts: One, Vino, Lance Armstrong strongest rival, was 6.21 behind overall at the start of stage 11. Two, LA's team, Discovery Channel, eased up when they whittled a 3.15 Vino lead to 27 seconds and then let it balloon to 1.15 in the end. Three, Vino, whose contract to T-Mobile this will expire this year, has stated that only two teams interest him for next season- T-Mobile and DC.

So, was Vino's win a gift from DC? Here's my take:

At 6.21, Vino has disappeared from DC radar threat. To chase him would only unnecessarily fatigue the DC armada as the race approaches the steeper climbs of the Pyrenees. As you can see, DC could have easily caught Vino but if they did that, it would only encourage counterattacks or irk T-Mobile to death. On the other hand, I think they really planned to make Vino suffer and make him pay for his efforts in the next few days. I think that with LA retiring, Vino could be his logical replacement. In the DC set up, he could be well supported for another tour run next year.

When asked if his win was a gift from LA, he was taken aback and said, "Well, I think you have to ask Lance for that."

LA, when asked about it, replied, "Our main concern was to keep the team together. He was 6 and a half minutes down in GC and we can't chase everybody down who's at 5, 6, or 7 minutes- we have to prioritize. And he was not in our list of priorities so we let him out there and controlled the pace. If his objective was to win a stage- mission accomplished. If his objective was to blow up the Discovery team- mission not accomplished." So there you have it, from the master of the double talk. GONE

Team CSC, the only team to wear the yellow jersey other than DC, has also the unenviable record of retiring its yellow jerseys. First to go was Dave Zabriskie, who got the maillot jaune during an incredible stage 1 ITT. He was suffering so much from his 4th stage crash that he finished off the time limit two stages later. Yesterday, Jens Voight, after wearing yellow for a day, also failed to make it to the time limit two days later. I think team director Bjarne Riis made a tactical error of overextending an important domestique for Basso as the mountains beckons. In cycling vernacular, it's called "burning your matches" too soon.