Thursday, July 12, 2012

American Tour de France Lanterne Rouge History

A bit of history was made today as Tyler Farrar became the first American in recent memory to hold the Lanterne Rouge of the Tour de France. There has never been an American Lanterne Rouge at the end of the Tour, in Paris. At this writing I'm not sure if there has ever been an American in last place in the General Classification after a Tour de France stage, although Americans have been final finishers in stages (Dave Zabriskie, Stage 8, 2005).

Can any Tour statisticians help us here? There are online historical archives at http://www.letour.fr/HISTO/fr/TDF/index.html but I haven't been able to pour through them.

I've heard that Bob Roll was once TdF Lanterne Rouge but I don't believe it's true, although he may have been a final stage finisher and came close to being overall Lanterne Rouge a few times: 200th/206 in Stage 1, 1987; 189th/190 in Stage 10, 1988; 194th/197 in Stage 4, 1990.   See all USA participations here: http://www.letour.fr/HISTO/fr/TDF/recherche/USA/all/participations.html

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Brice Feillu in 2012

Brice Feillu, French rider on Saur-Sojasun, has completed his 6th stage of the Tour de France as Lanterne Rouge. I'd like to offer this amusingly bad translation of the troubles that put him in last place in the peloton:

Brice Feillu experienced only a tower of France in 2009, and it was fabulous. He was young, virtually unknown, and he won a stage of the Pyrenees, Andorra-Arcalis.

Brice Feillu, Orchies, July 3, 2012 (Clement Guillou/Rue89)
The start of the second round is a galley for the climber of the Saur-Sojasun. He lives in quarantine. He sleeps alone, travel without the rest of the team, short, the gastro.

When it is pointing to the start of the second stage, to Visé in Belgium, he had not kept a meal since Sunday morning.

Fortunately for him, the platoon led a train of Senator during this second stage. He finished ten minutes in releasing taking 15 kilometres from the finish.

"Finish last it is not necessarily annoying but yes, it was a day Galerius.".

The fever had fallen from 40 to 39 degrees at departure. I had no forces, I had nothing in the belly... but it's still ballonnait. In another race, I would not take the start.

The slightest little thing that I ate, I wanted the vomit. I not stopped on the side, I had no paper toilet in the Pocket! But when even drugs that block it huh.

A 50 terminals of the arrival, I had cold sweats. I me water. I said to myself "this is wrong party" but ultimately, I still have hook me up to 15 km from the arrival. After I went quiet, but even 35 kilometres per hour, I was wrong the mouth. »

The next day at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brice Feillu has still finished last, more than a quarter of an hour. This was another victim of the gastro, Marcel Kittel, and three teammates, including Roy Curvers.

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