Tales from the Tour

ByEurosport

Published 06/07/2006 at 14:48 GMT

Laurent Brochard preaches the perils of the riders' earpiece; new boys Agributel make a splash; Andreas Klöden gets those needles out; Gerolsteiner becomes the drink of choice; Merckx makes his prediction; and... our daily caption contest.

CYCLING 2006 Rund um den Henninger Turm Frankfurt Voigt earpiece

Image credit: Imago

Tour veteran Laurent Brochard (Bouygues Telecom) has launched a swipe against the over-dependence modern riders have on electronic earpieces, as shown in this unfortunately out of place picture of Jan Ullrich.

Speaking to Le Parisien, the 38-year-old thoroughbred [who clipped his trademark ponytail during the spring], said: "Earpieces have changed the physiognomy of the races. There are less breakaways that now last the distance. The riders even have less inspiration at the start and during the race because everything is controlled by the directeur sportifs who follow everything from their cars on TV."

2004 Fleche Wallonne Ullrich earpiece

Image credit: Imago

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Brochard, the second oldest rider in the peloton after Discovery's evergreen octogenarian Viatsjeslav Ekimov, continued: "Without earpieces, we could express ourselves differently and function according to our urges, to how we feel - and then you'd see the true personalities of the riders. It would be so much more interesting.

"I still ride like an old-timer because I find the earpieces a little inhibiting. Often I take mine out because at a certain point, the interferences become annoying."

Française des Jeux directeur sportif Marc Madiot concurred, lamenting the fact that "We now have a generation of riders who expect everything from the earpiece."

The worries of these two established men in the world of cycling seemed to be given fresh impetus 100 km into Thursday's stage 5 from Beauvais to Caen when CSC rider David Zabriskie suddenly dropped off the back of the peloton.

Having been joined by his support car, the American time-trial specialist complained about a malfunction in his earpiece and, after much huff and puff, he stamped his feet, stopped and refused to ride on until the problem was rectified.

After the stage, when quizzed by Eurosport, Zabriskie would understate: "There was no sound so we had to switch the radio, but it was easy. A piece of cake."

This bizarre series of events seemed to capture exactly Madiot's concern that the overuse of earpieces "deprives the riders a vital part of cycling's culture."

Meanwhile, La Broche, however, did have something positive to say about earpieces: "One positive is in road security. Now we are amply warned about the road furniture which makes us ride more carefully."

Try telling that to Zabriskie, who will be most widely remembered for his terrible fall at the finish of the 2005 team time-trial at Tours.

GET THE CATTLE PROD OUT

Following the exclusion of Comunidad Valenciana in early June, French minnows Agritubel are the only Continental Pro team to get wild card entry into this year's Tour de France.

Sponsored by a company specializing in tubular equipment for cattle farmers, the team, which feature six Tour virgins, are led by Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado, whom they signed from QuickStep, and experienced Tour veteran Benoit Salmon.

"My task is to try to reassure them and to help them to manage their recuperation times as well as possible," 32-year-old Salmon told Eurosport, presumably about the team's Tour neophytes rather than the cows they indirectly serve.

"We're a new team, discovering a three-week major race like the Tour de France, even if we have some riders that know already this adventure. The goal is to learn and to try to show up our colours and do something good every day."

CYCLING 2006 Tour de France Benoit Salmon

Image credit: Imago

In the last two days, the Franco-Spanish team has succeeded in doing just so: relatively unknown riders Christophe Laurent, in stage 3, and Cédric Coutouly, in stage 4, have been involved in breakaways.

ANDREAS FEELING SHARP

With all the furore surrounding Jan Ullich's suspension in the wake of the Operacion Puerto scandal, you would think that there would be little-to-no mention of needles in the T-Mobile camp.

Not so, as second-in-command Andreas Klöden proves in his Wednesday diary entry on the German team's official website.

"Personally, I feel very good despite my crash yesterday," says Klodie after harping on about Germany's elimination from the World Cup at the hands of Italy.

CYCLING 2006 Pro Tour T-Mobile Andreas Kloeden

Image credit: Imago

"A lot of thanks must go to my acupuncturist John Boel. The "Professor" from Denmark worked his needles on me last night . A few needles in the derrière and a few in the back. It works wonders - I can tell you. I felt much looser afterwards and had no problems getting through today's stage."

SHAMELESS SPONSOR PLUG

Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer on Germany's David Kopp, who is suffering from stomach pains: "With this heat, he is drinking a lot, but too many sweet energy drinks. He would do better to drink Gerolsteiner natural mineral water - it would be better for him and would please our sponsor no end!"

MERCKX'S PREDICTION

While visiting his son Axel in the Phonak camp on Wednesday, Tour legend Eddy Merckx officially joined the Floyd Landis bandwagon. Asked if the 30-year-old American would win the race, Merckx told Eurosport:

"I think so. If you see the season Floyd's had this year, with his win in California... He's in very good shape, and has very good team. He'll be followed by (Levi) Leipheimer, (Denis) Menchov, and (Christophe) Moreau. Yesterday (Alejandro) Valverde went out and that's a shame."

CAPTION CONTEST

Our daily caption contest took off with a bang yesterday with hundreds of, at times, ridiculously unfunny offerings. Some of you, however, came up with some real humdingers for this picture of Belgian powerhouse Tom Boonen and large-toothed Michael Boogerd in action. Here are the best:

CYCLING 2006 Tour de France Esch-sur-Alzette (Lux) - Valkenburg (Ned) Boogerd Boonen

Image credit: Reuters

Jim Harmer: 'Up the slope - across the line - past the photographers - and you will find the pissoir on your right by the church.'

Alicia Hopkins: Boonen - "So Boogey, other than your teeth, what other super powers do you possess?"

Stuart Bagnall: 'So I said to Valverde, now you take the other hand off the bars - and the silly bugger did!'

Finally, Stephanie Nellor from Long Beach, California, wins the prize for the most politically incorrect offering with her succinct: "Heil Boonen!"

Today, we're looking for your suggestions from this picture of Tom Boonen (again) and Robbie McEwen at the start of stage 5 in Beauvais. Bonus points for picking the nasal character in between... Send you offerings (only one per person please!) to newsroom@eurosport.com.