I’m not a cyclist. I don’t own an Cervelo, Trek or Colnago. I’m not 5′ 9″ and 135lbs. But I love the tour de France! I’ve gotten hooked on the race since a friend of mine, an avid cyclist, taught the details and I’ve been hooked ever since. Every year I watch each evening, condensed of course, and absorb the action (the other thing I get is a tour of France and I’ve never been there so this is as close as it gets).
The big news is that the fastest sprinter in the world has had a bad couple of days. Mark Cavendish crashed yesterday handing teh stage victory to Andre Greipel. Today, Greipel beat Cav and all others with a stunning performance avoiding a crash and still winning the stage. That’s two stages in a row for German cyclist Andre Greipel. A german is winning lately but it isn’t Michael Schumacher.
VIDEO:
The guy that falls is American Tyler Farrar and right next to him is Greipel with his feet off the pedals balancing the bike. This was just before the finish and he clawed back to the front and won. An amazing performance.
But this is an F1 site and the big news this weekend is that Schumacher is feeling good and welcoming rain. The weather report says that rain could be in the mix and the German rainmeister is all for it:
“It is certainly an opportunity, that is clear,” said Schumacher. “It is more an opportunity than having a clear dry race for us.
“If we go back to Malaysia where it was wet, we didn’t look too strong, but we understood the reasons for it as much as we understood in Australia in the dry race why we had not been strong. So it will be a good opportunity to prove ourselves – therefore I welcome a bit of rain at the right moment of time.”
The team have been hit with bad luck and mechanical failures robbing Schumacher of points finishes but there is little doubt that a wet race could play into the hands of the German known for his car control in damp conditions. While rain may equalize the field in the eyes of Schumacher, there is another German who may be more impacting than the rain; Sebastian Vettel. Vettel was the class of teh fiel din Valencia two weeks ago and clearly had 4/10’s on the entire field before losing his alternator.
There may be another German to join Greipel on the top of the podium and most betting fans are looking at Vettel instead of Schumacher.
