Riders Remaining

According to a race fan, one of her favorite riders (David Zabriskie) hasn't been seen or heard from recently. She wanted to know why.

Well, ma'am, that's because Zabriskie is now OUT of the Tour. He finished outside of the time allowance in stage 11 and therefore cannot continue.

I don't know what the exact formula is, but if the leaders in a stage finish at XX, then you must finish within XX% of that finishing time or you're out.

For example, if the stage took riders five hours to finish, then you might get a 10% time allotment. That would mean that anyone who finishes at 05:50:01 and later is OUT OUT OUT.

By the way, here's the list of countries with riders remaining. The count is down to 167 (this was current as of the start of today's Stage 12.

The 167 riders remaining in the 2007 Tour de France represent 26 countries.
The breakdown is:
36 – Spain. Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez (AGR) abandoned during stage one after a crash; Xabier Zandio (GCE) abandoned during stage four because of injuries sustained in a crash in stage one. Oscar Freire (RAB) and Rubens Lobato (SDV) didn’t start stage seven. Igor Anton (EUS) abandoned during stage 11.
31 – France. Remy Di Gregorio (FDJ) didn’t start stage five after fracturing his elbow in a fall early in stage four. Geoffroy Lequartre (COF) didn’t start stage six after being caught up in a crash in stage five. Romain Feillu (AGR) abandoned during stage eight. Cedric Herve (AGR) finished outside the time limit in stage eight. Sylvain Calzati (A2R) abandoned during stage 11.
18 – Germany. Patrick Sinkewitz (TMO) didn’t start stage nine.
15 – Italy. Enrico Degano (BAR) abandoned during stage seven. Danilo Napolitano (LAM) finished outside the time limit in stage eight. Alberto Ongarato (MRM) crashed at the stage of stage 12 and abandoned shortly afterwards.
13 – Belgium
7 – The Netherlands
6 –Russia
5 – Switzerland and USA. Dave Zabriskie (CSC) finished outside the time limit in stage 11.
4 – Kazakhstan, Great Britain. Mark Cavendish (TMO) abandoned during stage eight.
3 – Austria.
2 – Belarus, Luxembourg, Norway, Ukraine, Australia and Colombia. Brett Lancaster (MRM) abandoned during the fifth stage. Michael Rogers (TMO) abandoned during stage eight after crashing and dislocating his right shoulder. Stuart O’Grady (CSC) abandoned during stage eight after crashing and breaking five ribs, dislocating his AC joint and sustaining numerous other injuries. Robbie McEwen (PRL) finished outside the time limit in stage eight. Ivan Parra (COF) abandoned during stage eight.
1 – South Africa, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden
Lithuania had one representative but Thomas Vaitkus didn’t start stage three because of a broken thumb sustained in a crash at the end of stage two.

Questions Questions Questions

The questions keep rolling in. This one came from a reader who saw a weird thing in the feed zone of yesterday's stage.

Dear Jeff:

When I watched the coverage yesterday I saw a guy from rabobank who was at the front of the peloton go through his feed bag. And I am almost positive he pulled out a can of coke. Is that possible. Would any rider drink coke in the middle of the race? It was definitely a drink in a can as they showed him struggling a bit to pop it open. Thoughts?

SK in the USA

Dear SK:

Coke is great. It's got caffeine and sugar and liquid. Many riders I know who I used race with (mountain bikes) would shake up and pour out a can of coke so it would get flat. Then, during a race they would chug it between laps. It's even better that way because you don't get indigestion from the bubbles.

Gatorade has a lot more sugar than is necessary in a recovery beverage, therefore the teams mix their own recovery drink and prep all the bottles in the SAG wagon before each stage.

OK, you're gonna ask so here goes. I know there's a fancy name for the SAG wagon, but the way I remember it is that it's Support And Gear.

Send all your questions to me at jeff@jeffcutler.com and I'll try and answer them right here on TDF07.com.