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Lawrence of Arabia
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of the Gulag Archipelago
Apr 2001
time: 06:20
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So the first stage is on Saturday. Its a 'contre-la-montre' time trial, the prologue of the tour. 19km of mostly flat. The racers start in Fromentine, in the department of la Vendée [Vallée de la Loire region] (if anyone took a French Revolution class, they had a strong counter revolutionnary movement and fought for the reimposition of the Capet dynasty)
The highest point is the bridge which the racers will cross from east to west to get onto the island and finish at Noirmoutier-en-l'ile. Last years winner of the prologue was the Swiss Fabien Cancellera from the Fasso Bartolo team, who was 0:02 faster then Lance Armstrong. (Cancellera is now on the Phonak team)
the weather is forcast to be cloudy with chance of rain. i believe last years prologue was also raced in the rain, but im not sure. the wind will be out of the west at around 20 kph, so the racers will be going into the wind.
In the US I think you can catch it on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) but maybe the discovery channel might show it since they are sponsoring Lance Armstrongs team. (it would start at like 5 am or something.) In france you can catch it on TF1 or TF2, in Switzerland on TSR, and across europe on Eurosport.
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01-07-2005 02:33
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