Jodie Batchelor
Jodie is the current Victorian Vets Criterium and Road champion in her age group. She has been racing for several years now and likes any event that involves sprinting and not too many hills. She initially used cycling as an important part of her rehabilitation from a mountaineering accident in New Zealand. She then got into racing as a replacement for martial arts in which she represented Australia and won Gold, Silver & Bronze medals in the Martial Arts World Games in 2000.
Tour de France - Stage 1 (in review)
- By Jodie Batchelor
- Published 07-Jul-08
Well after all the anticipation the tour has started.
It was an interesting stage. It was marred by the usual 1st week crashes as the first rider was out after completing just 90km (how devastating would that be - you train all year and finally get selected for the team and its all over after 90km!).
It was not a finish for the sprinters - it was good to see the Silence-Lotto team come up and protect Cadel particularly in the last 15km or so of the stage. The finish was up hill and although Cadel was in the front few riders Alejandro Valverde flew past Cadel for the line.
Alejandro is one of the other main contenders for this years tour, lat year he finished 6th. My thoughts are that Valverde may be hitting form too early in the tour, there are another 20 stages to go and there is also pressure now on the team to defend the jersey. I think Cadel rode the stage smart - stayed out of trouble, lost no real time (1") to a competitor and did not over extend himself. Also there weren't all those thousands of reporters around him wanting that special comment on how it felt to win the stage.
Other Tour favourites Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov, Frank and Andy
Schleck, Damiano Cunego and Kim Kirchen also did not lose any time in today's stage.
You may not be able to win the Tour de France in the first week, but you sure can lose it, by getting caught in or behind crashes or just by getting caught in traffic while your rivals ride away in front of you.
