So it looks like I will indeed finish my thesis one day :) At least I have one more incentive to wrap it up since I got a really good job offer in Albany NY. I have been up there twice already and it looks like a lovely cycling area, with lots of bike lanes in what is essentially a flat city and a good deal of hills and mountains not too far if the post-PhD era allows me time and energy to get in shape and actually climb... More generally, I don't think there are many regulars from up there but if you have experiences to share about Albany NY and the Capital District area, feel free !

Well, this might be too soon, but next week we'll be so busy that if Thomas bonks in Izoard (my head still says this will happen), there will be no time to pay a decent tribute. Also next week promises to be super-busy for me... Finally, if Thomas wins the Tour, let's just say there will be many other such threads :) I just want to give my quick perspective as a French man who has been following the Tour for 20 years (these are my earliest memories :) ), a dead era for French (Grand Tour) cycling. So let's get some perspective on the history of French Maillots Jaunes over the last 20 years...

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So it turns out that I was in London for the final stage of the Halford Tour Series, in Canary Wharf. Thanks to Albertina, a few of us ended up meeting there for some fun and fast racing despite windy conditions and a lack of appropriate clothing for me. While I won't be able to provide nice pictures of Albertina, EdredonBrowny or papyrus, let me assure you that it was a great time and I encourage all the PdCers to do more meetups like this. Bike racing, beers and good company, what else can you ask for? Many thanks again to Albertina, papyrus and EdredonBrowny for a very good time! A few more pictures after the break, but you can also directly go to the flickr gallery.

DSC_2019 (via FrenchKheldar)

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My fellow DIPPBs from London, (others can I guess give me their advice on the best Tikka Masala in town :) )

I will be in London next week for 3 nights and while most of the trip will be quite business heavy (conference at the Imperial College which look gorgeous from the satellite view), I'm hoping to have some time for some sightseeing, especially Thursday night/Friday morning once the conference is over. I've been to London once 15 years ago, with the main purpose of the trip buying some obscure Tolkien books that I couldn't get in France. I remember going to the National Galleries but very little outside of that. I know the banks of the Thames have undergone some spectacular additions over the last decade. Just wondering what you would recommend for an Americano-Frenchie for just one evening in the City. Thanks in advance ! Cheers !

Turns out it's even more fun to rank them based on doping suspicions than on actual results. Uncovered by L'Equipe, it's supposedly contains a database of various reports by UCI doctors and labs detailing variations of blood quality, traces of different products, etc... The good news is that the average among the 198 riders from the Tour 2010 is 2.4 out of 10. The article in L'Equipe is pretty upbeat, saying that it looks like the anti-doping is getting results and that of course, France is leading the way... A handful of specific results after the break !

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While some riders choose to ride the semi-beer semi-classics in the Limburg, the VDS competition offers a Brittany doubleheader to reward all your 1- and 2- pointers. Tour du Finistère on Saturday (it just takes one day, it's pretty small) and Tro Bro Leon (aka Celtic Strade Bianche) on Sunday. La Tête dans le Guidon has actually quite a few riders in Spain and in Netherlands right now, so our squad is pretty light:

Jérémy Roy

Romain Feillu

Laurent Mangel (only Saturday?)

David LeLay (only Saturday?)

(where are you Tony Gallopin??? Oh looks like you're in Limburg ! Good for you, not so much for the team !)

Who do you got? My personal picks for the wins: Anthony Geslin and Gaël Malacarne (or Adrien Petit).

I'm sorry if this was discussed in the post-race thread of PR but I think this is a bit more general. However, I will start with a PR question. If Fabian doesn't attack à Mons ou au Carrefour de l'Arbre, do you think Ballan ou Boom cooperate with him? Hushovd might be key since he probably won't help and maybe the others don't want to carry him to the finish...

More questions and your answers after the jump...

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In order to get another excuse every year as to why I finish so far back in the VDS competition, I've decided to add another constraint to my team. I said another because I already had a constraint of hiring a bunch of French riders, but given their lack of success, this truly limits me. While I will keep on trying to have a sizable French troop, I really enjoyed cheering for (most of) my riders last year and I feel like a bond was created. As a result, I will try to limit the turnover each year and to keep at least a core of riders from year to year. See you after the break for details !

I encourage you to leave a note here if you have a similar approach, or just start a topic for your team ! 

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So here it is, the end of my first season as a VDS. Unless WADA and UCI act very fast, I finish an honest 142nd with 8813 pts. Congrats to tgartner for his dominating victory, a mere 4500 pts ahead of me (yep that’s about 50% !). Numbers and graphs after the break.

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Following what I did for the Giro:
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2010/5/30/1493798/split-alternate-giro-classification
I look at the time gaps between some of the top riders of the race to see where they lost or gain time...  Definitely a low impact of the cobbles and medium mountain stages. Damn it I made a mistake, the numbers don't add up :( If anybody cares to have a look...

More numbers after the jump.

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Bonjour PodiumCafé,

After the national humiliation of the World Cup, it's time to make the rooster proud again on top of this pile of crap :) Here are 5 Frenchmen you should cheer for as they go mindlessly on the attack only to be crushed by the peloton/ a GC leader / a herd of sheep as they approach the finish line:

1. Nicolas Vogondy

Well, the Frinkster has already given you the lowdown on Nico, but let me put it in some more orderly fashion, in my own broken English. His best results on the Tour: 7th in Pau (flat stage) in 2002, 14th on top of the Alpe d'Huez in 2008. His win on top of Risoul must have been a huge confidence booster for him, and with his recent TT championship, you can see he is a complete package. Dream scenario: a good prologue, he avoids the traps of the first week-end and sneaks into a nice break in the Jura to get the Maillot Jaune in Les Rousses. If not, you can count on him to be on top on the Combativity classification for most of the Tour. Also don't be confused on the road, his teammate from BBOX Voeckler will wear the French champion jersey for most of the stages since he won the RR today. But look for Vogondy in his swell maillot bleu-blanc-rouge in Rotterdam for the prologue.

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Just wanted to look at where the top contenders won/lost time. It's not meant to say that losing time at l'Aquila or on the TTT was unfair, just to see how the race was won/lost and how it could have been. You will learn after the jump that Gadret was not that competitive, even in the mountains; that Arroyo and Scarponi lost the Giro on the TTT while Nibali would have probably won a slightly less mountaineous Giro... Let me know what you think!

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