2009 Tour de France: Will the Tour have a new leader today?

CEBU, Philippines - Today’s 13th stage falls on a Friday and whether it brings bad or good luck will depend on a lot of things. Though not classified as a mountain stage, there are 5 categorized climbs, 2 category 3’s, 2 category 2’s and one category 1. If you remember, the hardest climb is the “hors category”, an uncategorized climb due to its degree of difficulty.

The contenders have been getting antsy since the last mountain stage last Sunday and there could be changes in the overall classification today if they are no careful. Winds and rain are expected so it should make the racing doubly dangerous. However, I think that the favorites will take it easy again today to prepare for Sunday’s monster climb but you’ll never know.

Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer made a mistake today when they crashed inside the 3km mark. They came out of it ok but it just goes to show that anything can happen at any moment. Can you imagine if it had happened in the last 10km when the peloton was racing flat out? Leipheimer has this history of losing a few seconds in the finishing straight and in one particular instance, it cost him a 5th place finish overall in the 2005 Tour.

On the other hand, Lance Armstrong has never had a major mistake since he won back in 1999. The closest call he had was back in 2003 when he took a downhill shortcut on a field to avoid a fallen Joseba Beloki. Today, he had a flat but with the race a long way to go, he was able to get back easily. Of course, the peloton waited for him.

Here are a few unwritten rules in cycling:

1. Don’t attack in the feed zone.

2. Don’t attack when rides are taking the call of nature.

3. Don’t attack when there is a crash.

4. Slow down and wait for the riders who crashed.

5. Don’t take the win if you don’t help set the pace in a breakaway.

6. Do not chase a teammate who is in a breakaway.

7. Don’t attack a teammate who is in the yellow jersey.

Word of the day: DOSSARD aka are race numbers cyclists pin on their back for identification. There are 3 types of dossards- WHITE with black numbers is the regular dossard. LIME GREEN with black numbers is given to the team sitting on the overall team classification and currently held by SAXO BANK. RED dossard is called the “combativity award” and given to the most aggressive rider per stage. A jury of 8 people determines this award.