All language subtitles for ITV.Chasing.Legends.PDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.Forum.eng

(COMMENTARY IN FRENCH)

It's a cliched thing,
but all for one, one for all.

That's how we work
and that's how we win.

We are tucked under
the Alpes-Maritime mountains.

If you go left as you leave town,
you're in France.

If you go right, Italy.

This is the second smallest country
in the world,

so you couldn't really have
a 15.5km bike race inside it.

That's why we have to make that
slight incursion onto French soil
for a while.

(CHEERING)

(FRENCH ANNOUNCER)

Lance Armstrong!

This is unbelievable.

The winner of the Tour of Italy is
20m in front of Fabian Cancellara,

the winner
of the Tour of Switzerland.

They approach the finish.

Menchov is struggling now.
He won't believe this.

Remember, they started
a minute and 30 seconds apart.

An absolutely superb race
by Fabian Cancellara.

What a great job Monaco has done
for the opening day
of the Tour de France.

It began over 100 years ago

as a publicity stunt
by the newspaper L'Auto.

Georges Lefevre, a young cyclist
turned reporter,

boldly suggested they invent a race
unparalleled in its demands.

He claimed they could win
the attention of a country
torn by politics.

The editor, Henri Desgrange,
was also a cyclist.

And so it began.

The arena would be all of France.

And the gladiators would be cyclists,

riding heavy steel frames
on rims of wood with a single gear.

They would battle the elements,
the unpaved roads,

the spectators,

and above all, themselves.

On July 1st, 1903,

60 men left the village
of Mongeron, near Paris.

Among them, not just professionals,

but amateurs, some unemployed.

Some simply adventurous.

L'Auto reported 'The men waved their
hats, the ladies their umbrellas.

One felt they would have liked
to touch the steel muscles

of the most courageous champions
since antiquity.

Who will carry off the first prize?

Entering the pantheon
where only supermen may go.'

There's no other sporting event on
an annual basis

that matches up to the Tour de
France as an achievement.

The first time I came home
from the race, I said to my wife,

'That is the most unbelievable
event I have ever reported on.

You'll never see me there
in 40 years' time.'

But you can't get it
out of your system.

They talk of tour fever. Once
contracted, it's incurable.

It's because everybody who goes to
the Tour de France

realises what an incredible
sporting achievement it is by the
people who take part in the tour.

realises what an incredible
sporting achievement it is by the
people who take part in the tour.

The Tour de France is our Superbowl.

Our whatever final of the
World Series in baseball.

The Tour is not just a race,
it's an adventure.

It's a big adventure on top of it.

It's a big survival trip,
you can say.

Especially three weeks of races

that are over 100 miles a day.

Through the Alps,
through the Pyrenees.

Through roads the size of bike paths

with 215 guys.

Everybody in the world, whether
they're into cycling or not,
knows about the Tour de France.

Knows it's the biggest bike race
in the world.

When you get into cycling,
it means that much more.

You grow up watching
these people do incredible things.

It's something to aspire to.
A massive thing.

The tour gives you the chance
to step out of the shadow.

Being a domestic into
your 15 minutes of fame.

The Tour de France
is watched by seven-year-old kids

up to a 55, 65-year-old
grandad or grandmother.

You reach everybody with the Tour.

Everybody respects each other.

Even if you don't know the name
of the rider next to you,
you know he must be a good rider.

Because he's in the Tour de France.

So you respect everybody.
You don't have stupid idiots there.

Everybody is a good,
serious, hard-working rider.

It takes you a couple of years to
find out how big the Tour really is.

You can't see on television
how big it really is.

It's every rider's dream
to come to the Tour.

And to win a stage.

Very few riders can win this race.

But it's still an honour
to be here for every rider.

This is my sixth tour.

Still as hard as the first year
I did it.

It's by far the biggest race
of the year.

For sure, the best
is the arrival in Paris.

It's a nice thing
to arrive to the crowd

and know now the tour is finished.

You're really happy
to go home again.

You look at the mountains. You climb
three of them in a day.

Each of them being 20 miles high.

You ride for five or six hours.

Then you repeat it the next
day and the next and the next.

Three weeks is the current distance
of the Tour de France.

The challenges are immense
just to complete the route.

Everybody knows, first-hand,
how much suffering it requires
just to survive the Tour.

We're all in the same boat.
We all know it's risky.

Every year, you have 50 or 60
riders who didn't make it to Paris.

For the cyclists,
it's three weeks of pain.

Unbelievable concentration.

Sometimes you wake up at the Tour,

you're just tired, tired, tired,
like you just can't imagine.

You see people crashing,
hurting, bleeding.

Somehow, laugh pain off.

Funnily enough, people laugh.

Our No.1 goal is to win.

We want to win stages,
we want to win jerseys.

The Tour is a real challenge.

We've got young,
up and coming stage racers.

When we looked at the course
and the competition,

it was pretty clear that Alberto
Contador was going to be
very tough to beat.

So our best chance for success was
going to be to focus on Cav,

to have some guys
who could do well in the GC,

but to really put most of our eggs
around Cav in that basket.

Team Columbia-High Road HTC,
new sponsors for the Tour,

are now very much
taking a leading part here.

Their only thought is to steer
Mark Cavendish to victory.

This is the leading group
of four riders,

escaped after 25km of the stage here
this afternoon.

To hold off the main field,
you've got to be able to ride
at about 40 miles an hour.

Never say die. Races have been won
by the persistent.

Just under 5km to go.

This young man has held them
off for a couple of kilometres.

But it's all over now.

Ignatyev is swept aside
by Team Columbia.

The guy in the blue and white
is George Hincapie.

The guy behind him with the green
glasses is Bernhard Eisel.

I like to try and pull the viewer
into a sprint.

A sprint is so heated
and so exciting.

It's dramatic. I like to try and...

I love commentating on sprinting.

Milram have got control
on the front end of the main field.

But once they get close
to the finish,

you may well start to see the
acceleration from Team Columbia.

George Hincapie in the yellow
and white sunglasses.

The line moving smoothly up
on the yellow side.

Team Columbia, the last man
is Mark Cavendish.

If you have to put your brakes on at
this point in the race, 3km to go,

you'll go from 5th position to 55th
position and lose all chances
of winning the bike race.

Look how close everybody's now
starting to get together.

Inside of 3km to go.

Milram have got control at the front
end of the main field.

Once you are done, you swing off
and leave it up to somebody else.

It's Columbia HTC on the front now,
getting control once more.

George Hincapie
is in fourth position.

Behind him it's Mark Renshaw. And
behind him it's going to be
Mark Cavendish.

Eyes down for a big straight run
as it all comes together.

Bouncing and barging going on there.

Trying to get onto the wheel
of George Hincapie.

There was a nasty kick in the middle
there that pushed Tom Boonen.

But he's corrected it now.
Extremely wide there.

Some have gone off the course.
The police have to jump for it.

It's Columbia one, two, three.
The last lead-out to Mark Renshaw.

This is a formality.

Now Cavendish is launched.

The Missile fires again.

Nobody will get to him.

Cavendish gets his first win
of the Tour de France 2009.

And Tyler Farrar
an excellent second place.

What a bonehead are you!

You offered Danish television -

No, you did yesterday.
No.

I said in the neutral zone.

And he told me -
No, no.

Yeah. He said, 'Brian told me...'

He named you.
He said, 'I talked to Holm.

And he said
I can go with you in the car.'

I said, 'What?!'

No, no. I said ten kilometres
and then enough.

That's what I also told him.

He came back to me
and said, 'Brian said.'

No, he's trying.
On Friday.

I said no.

If you're not a contender
to win the Tour and wear
the leader's yellow jersey,

the green jersey
is the next most coveted.

It's won by accumulating points for
being the first man to cross
not only the finishing line,

but also the intermediate points
along the course every day.

Columbia HTC had a lot of pressure
on their shoulders.

A lot of work because of the speed
of Mark Cavendish.

Nobody wanted to help us.

We chased down the breakaway and
Cavendish was feeling really good.

We didn't want to let that
opportunity

of winning another stage so early
on in the race slip away from us.

So we decided to go to the front.

It was very windy. There was
a big headwind at the time.

We had said that
if we noticed a wind change

that we would try
to split up the peloton.

We never imagined
doing that much damage.

I remember knowing that
something was going to happen.

Because of the way the road
was changing and zigzagging.

I know that area extremely well.
A slight change of direction
can split the field.

We had driven the course that
morning, right before the stage.

We saw this opportunity.

One of the things that can really
change the race right now
is wind conditions.

Particularly crosswinds
on these narrow roads.

We're just leaving Arles right now.

It looks like this is going to be
an important section of the road.

There should be a strong crosswind
coming from the right.

This is an important tactical
consideration.

Riders got to know when you
say something, you mean it.

No discussions.

If we say go flat out, they do it.

They have to ride
till they drop dead.

If it's windy,
you've got to stay at the front.

At one particular point,
about 36km to go, George said to me,

'We'll drop back in the peloton.

It's windy here.'

Just as we're dropping back,
we see a 90-degree right corner.

And we're riding into a headwind.

So if we're going to turn
90 degrees, we're going to have
a crosswind straight through it.

Straight away,
the wind's hitting our side.

I know everybody in the team
is thinking we could actually
split it here.

But it takes someone with balls
to actually call the decision.

If you call a decision and we mess
it up, then the blame's on you.

All of us were thinking it.

It took Michael Rogers,
on the radio, saying, 'Go now.'

We're looking at the back of the
peloton, which is in tatters
at the front.

Look at that gap!
They spotted it into the crosswind.

Cancellara made the split,
in the yellow jersey.

Lance Armstrong has made it.

Alberto Contador did not.

You can see the panic
which is on now by the peloton.

If this road keeps doing S's,

then it's crosshead, crosshead,
crosshead.

And it's going to cause gaps.

Because of the split,
there are the four riders
beneath the American flag.

Who, I'm afraid, have been shot down
in flames by a peloton which is
racing for real time now.

When it happened, I was like,
'Oh. That's great.'

But then we also found out
now we have to keep going!

We're having the team time trial
today.

It's Team Columbia HTC
who caused this split.

And they are driving.

The big advantage here is that there
are nine riders from Team Columbia
High Road HTC in this group.

That means that they won't hold
anything back.

They can completely and utterly
sacrifice themselves.

It is very, very rare to see
something like this.

When the whole of one team
manages to get themselves
into a front split.

They're now starting to get
themselves organised.

There's a lot of people in that
back group must be panicking.

There's Contador, No.21,
in the centre of our picture.

He's going to be feeling a little
bit anxious at the moment.

I know that we split the peloton.

But I didn't know if we were
with 80 guys or 100.

Because I didn't look behind.

One kilometre to go now.

Skil-Shimano won't go down
without a fight as well.

Cavendish has moved himself
right up now.

He's not got a lot of riders here.

There's an attack going right
on the far side of the road.

This is going to be a tough one.

Mark Renshaw, you've got to do
something special here.

'Where are you?'
'I'm right behind you.'

Mark has got to do something very
special here and stay there as long
as possible.

Wrolich is getting up
on his back wheel as well here.

And Thor Hushovd is locked in onto
the back of the missile.

I think that Cavendish knows it.

Now he's up the left-hand side.

Thor Hushovd is going to use his
massive strength to challenge
Cavendish.

It's going to be close.
Cavendish has done it.

Yes, he's done it.

Mark Cavendish is unbelievable.

Cavendish!

Yeah!

He was riding like small motorbikes.

Small Kawasakis, 1100cc, you know.

Once you got the crosswind,
they were speeding up.

Going full speed ahead.

Was amazing.

I looked at Aldag.

He was crying a little bit
when Marky won.

Don't tell him.

It feels like a junior race
sometimes.

Nobody wants to commit themselves.

It's supposed to be a sprint.
'Maybe we should ride for a sprint?'

But everybody's nervous about
the team time trial tomorrow.

We were the only team
willing to take it on.

What a way to stick it
to everyone else.

We hit it in the crosswinds,
we split it. We came in clear.

Mark Cavendish!

Sprinters have to be extroverted
characters.

Because of the explosive nature of
the side of the sport they practise.

They have to appear brash, outgoing.

They have to be confident.

Like boxers. You don't get into the
ring, 'I'm going to do my best.'

You've got to get in there and say,
'I'm going to win. I want to kill
this guy.'

That's what a sprinter has to do.

A sprinter has to have
that character.

Otherwise he's going to finish
second, third.

Sometimes that comes out as being
cocky and cheeky and brash.

But deep down, Mark Cavendish
is a pretty cool character.

If you're going to be
a great sprinter,

you've got to be totally fearless.

It is highly dangerous to race
in a pack of 100-plus riders.

Shoulder to shoulder, wheel to
wheel, kneecap to kneecap.

Over the last 150m,
you know you've got to get through
an impossible gap.

Crowds leaning over the barriers.

They've got to be fearless people.

But their character
is also one of aggression.

Because that's the way they are.

They unleash it on the bike.

And very often, they unleash it
with their tongue as well.

You can see them over-acting.

Even if they win the stage.

You expect they have to be happy.

But they are so much...

I don't know what it is.

Maybe so much adrenaline
inside of them.

So it just have to come out.

And sometimes it comes out
in a strange way.

There's a lot more with Mark
Cavendish than meets the public eye.

This is a passionate young man.
He's just now turned 24.

For me, I can't even think myself
into a position like he is in.

Think about his age.

How quick all that came.

For sure, he came from the track.

The first Tour de France he crashed
five times in four stages.

He was really depressed.

Coming back
and making so quick moves,
being so good in so short time.

That's really impressive.

He's still grounded.
People support him.

Always have very big credit.

But you should not really play
around with him.

He will also not forget that,
I think.

Over the years, the Tour has
incorporated different elements
of cycling into its rigours.

2009 saw the return
of the team time trial.

An event where all nine riders
of each team race together
against the clock.

While the Tour de France is won by
the lowest accumulated individual
time after 21 days of racing,

the team time trial
counts towards that time.

Only after the fifth man
in each team crosses the line
will the clock be stopped.

I was scared already before.

Really big time scared.

I have really big respect
for the team time trial.

I was sure, OK, I'm not the best
time trialler.

We had a lot of good
time triallers there.

We had a three-time world champion
with Mick Rogers.

World champion with Bert Grabsch.

George Hincapie. Mark is a really
good team time trialler.

OK, that's going to be the toughest
day for you! For any of us.

They will be hyper-motivated.

The world time trial champion
on the left-hand side, Bert Grabsch.

The Australian time trial champion
on the left, Mick Rogers.

And they've got the experience,
in third position,
of big George Hincapie.

It's full gas!

No problem. Come on, guys.

Left, right.

The course in Montpelier
was diabolical.

With its narrow, twisting roads,
fractured pavement,

and exposure to the wind.

It would tax the total ability
of every rider.

Go, go, go, go.

Grabsch is also at the limit.

Team Saxo Bank, with Fabian
Cancellara still in the yellow
jersey,

was one of the favourites to win.

However, all the world was anxious
to see seven-time Tour winner and
living legend Lance Armstrong

return to the discipline
he has always dominated.

Turn right, be careful.

This is the most critical part
of the course.

Left turn, narrow bridge.
Super-narrow. Heads up.

Left turn followed by a right turn.

There is a hole in the road.

Fabian Cancellara
is riding like ten men.

Cavendish looking over his shoulder
at George Hincapie.

They've already got an awful amount
of success out of the Tour de France.

They are down to six men
in Team Astana.

Even Armstrong appears human.
He's gritting his teeth.

They've got to do it. They need
to kick very, very hard here.

And they've done it by a matter of...

Oh, my goodness me.

At the end of the day,
it was indeed Team Astana who won.

But a mere 200ths of a second kept
Lance from the maillot jaune.

It's one of those events
where you always feel
like you're the weakest guy.

I finished the stage and I thought
I was a disappointment.

But then you talk to the other guys.

They say, 'You were great.'

So it's hard to know.

I tried to do my best.

For me, Popo and Kloden
were the strongest.

It's just a damn hard event.

It's one of the hardest things
we do in the Tour.

I finally had a chance
to see the Tour.

I'm friends with Lance,
friends with George.

I thought I'd drop those names.

I know them on a first-name basis.

Yeah, I throw a little...

That's my biking blue steel.

Um... Yeah.

Blue carpet.

Very similar to blue steel
but lighter. Much lighter.

Start pretty relaxed. Eating
sandwich, have a drink in the car.

Bit of fun.

But it's getting
more and more exciting.

Then we're getting into the tactics.

We got to admit, sometimes
we have small discussion about...

About the right thing to do.

George, in the peloton,
doesn't speed up any more.

Just go steady.

No steady.
They have to close the gap.

George.

They're going steady here.

You said just go steady.
No, I said they're going steady.

George, did the other guy catch you?

You cannot follow a manual.

You don't know the race.
A, B or maybe even C.

Sometimes we need to get into
heavy discussion about tactics.

We're coming with the new bike.
We're coming.

What?

It's difficult.
You don't see really the race.
You don't see where they at.

You have a little television
that you can watch.

You have some basic time splits.

But it's not really that we can say
we've got everything under control.

It's a lot more 'What do you think?'

Look at that.

When you're forming
a top team in the world,

you can liken it to
Formula One motor racing.

There's the driver, there's the car.

And there's the men
that make the driver go fast

and there's the men
that make the car go fast.

Exactly the same applies in cycling.

You develop a team of maybe
26 or 28 riders in the stable.

Of which only nine
make the Tour de France.

And they fight for selection.

Within their own team, they have
to show they've got the fitness,
the form and the willpower.

They're backed up by the overall
managing director of the team.

The guy maybe owns the team.

He'll take along his helpers,
his sporting directors.

It's their job to plot
the day's tactics.

To talk to the riders.
'You didn't ride well yesterday.
Ride further up the bunch.'

That will all come out
in the team tactical talk
at the start of the day

or over the dinner table
the previous night.

The riders go in as teams.

Team blending is very important.

The chef. They bring a chef.

The chef walks in
and takes over the hotel kitchen.

Sends the chef home,
makes all the food.

Brings it out. Knows exactly what
each rider wants, what his fancies
are, what his allergies are.

So he's a very important member
of the team.

Just as important
as the guy riding the bike.

Then you've got the soigneur.

The man who is going
to take the rider

who may just have crashed.

His leg's covered in blood.

Riders shave legs, yes.

A little bit of vanity. But it's
so they can be massaged all the time.

And be bandaged after accidents.

He'll go straight
to the massage room first.

He'll be given up to an hour
on the table.

The guy walks out. 'I feel like a
stage of the Tour de France again
tomorrow.'

I can imagine if people see us
sitting down,

they think, 'Oh, they have a
good life. Sitting in the sun.

Drive a nice car and wait
for the riders and that's it.'

But our day starts around seven
in the morning.

The Tour de France yesterday, we
were at the dinner table at 10:30.

You start in the morning
to prepare bottles,

making food,
give them a massage in the evening.

You fill up the car, wash the car.

You do (BLEEP) almost everything.

All day you're running.

Your social life
is pretty much down the drain.

You're not with friends,
family birthdays or family parties.

I was not with a family occasion
for...the last eight years.

The upside of this job,

every day is different.

It's exciting every day.

All the big success as a team,
you're part of that. A good feeling.

The men I always feel have got the
worst job, although nobody would
ever trade it, is the mechanic.

The mechanics have to select the
gears, change all those sprockets at
the back for the road the next day.

Then the riders will say, 'This hill
isn't that steep. Change it back.'

So he's doing the bikes again.

They guys will have their own
reasons why they want things in
certain places.

Because they're superstitious
or they've got to fix that to there.

The worst day for a mechanic
is when it rains all day.

The whole bike is stripped
to the bone. Rebuilt.

New tyres, new handlebar tape.

Make the bike look what they are,
professional cyclists'.

It runs in the family.

My dad is a car mechanic.

He's pretty good at fixing cars.

It's in the blood.

Fixing things.

That's my passion, bikes.

There was a crash and he stopped.

Then somebody hit him from behind.

Totally smacked his wheel.

Cav is OK, nothing happened
but the wheel is not so good.

The mechanics are special.
They never go to bed.

They just work, work, work. You
never see them at the dinner table.

The food is passed to them
out the window!

Those guys are special
and they're the hardest workers.

They also have to work on the race,
with the wheels,

ready to change
when riders fall off.

First out the car, wheels in hand.

They may have two wheels in hand.

Find the rider,
fix him, get him back into the race.

If he's covered in blood,
it doesn't matter.

We'll send the doctor up
and he can sort him out.
But he's got to be in that race.

Just relax a little bit.

Feel the energy.

(BLEEP)

(LAUGHTER)

OK, gentlemen.

We're going to drive
the Panzerwagen a little bit.

Tony and his fellow driver
and his troops, OK?

You know it's going to be without
the radios today.

Bernie, Captain America,
you make the decisions.

Don't start fighting,
like we normally do in the car.

Just discuss it, make decisions.

As normal, try to save Prince Harry.

For Cav also, for the final.

The lead-out
is going to be like normal.

Every day, when you guys
start to move off,

the yellow train is coming.

Trust me.

All the small teams,
Saxo Bank, they move away.

Trust me, when they see you guys
moving up, nobody try.

Today, you don't have the radios.

You really have to fight
to stay together.

I couldn't figure out why we
had to race without the radios.

I heard somebody say the cycling
would be more exciting.

I don't know.
Was it more exciting in the '80s?

I really don't think so.

When I was riding,
I think it was about the same.

This came up from some French team
who didn't win.

They blamed it on the radios.

Eisel is digging deep once again.

This might be a different result.
Milram have got this organised.

This could make a very different
approach. It's Ciolek at the moment.

The young man on Columbia in
the white jersey, Tony Martin,
is beginning to try to break it in.

A kilometre to go.

Milram have got to the front
a little bit too far out.

They've got to keep the pressure on.

You are committed at this point.
This is the long climb.

Hincapie will wait
till the last moment.

In fourth position in that line of
riders of Columbia HTC
is Mark Cavendish.

Queuing up now.
He's moved up nicely there.

To the wheel of Cavendish is
the green jersey of Thor Hushovd.

To the left is the
Garmin-Slipstream acceleration.

They're looking after Tyler Farrar.

Here is the huge lead
by George Hincapie.

Farrar is in there on the left.

Hushovd is onto the wheel
of Mark Cavendish now.

This is going to make
all the difference.

The final lead-out
will come by Renshaw.

On the right, Hushovd believes
he's got the strength on the hill.

Cavendish is going to have to fight.

The three top sprinters
have gone shoulder to shoulder.

Tyler Farrar
is going after Cavendish.

But the middle man with the
big heart and the big legs
has just made it four in a row.

He equals the British record.

He has got eight stage wins in
two years in the Tour de France.

Again, that was not easy, Paul.

The team did a fantastic job.

These days, everybody trains hard.
Everybody's got good tactics.

Everybody got next to perfect bikes.

The difference is sometimes
only made up here.

You go out riding your bike for seven
hours, seven hours, seven hours.

It's raining. It might snow.

Then there's this one day of racing

that you did all the things for.

And this is why you realise.

'I invested so much time.

I invested so much effort into that.

That really hurt me.

But it's only 20km more
to the finish.

I have to hang on now.

I really have to do my best.'

Suffering in cycling
is basically the key to success.

Voigt now has been picked up
by Andy Schleck's group.

I'm not a world-class sprinter.

I'm not a world-class climber
or time trialler.

All I have is my fighting spirit
and my big engine.

So if I go out, I know I might
have a 10% chance of winning
or coming through.

A 90% chance of getting caught.

But to me,
it's just as simple as anything.

If I don't go out,
I have zero chances.

So I rather take a 10% chance
than zero percent chance.

Isn't that logic?

But fortunately for me,
not everybody thinks like that.

That's why I'm still
in the business.

Even at the age of almost 38,

I can still do some sort
of performance.

If he, on one day, gets into
a winning move that succeeds,

and he wins the stage,

he's a superhero.

He's known all over France.

He's in all the papers in France.

He's now a very special character.

And he wakes up the next morning
and thinks, 'I've just won a stage
of the Tour de France.'

That's his life complete. He
never gets the sack from a team now.

He's fixed for the rest of his life.
A stage-winner of the Tour de France.

Everywhere, he'll be announced as a
stage-winner of the Tour de France.

It's incredibly special.

Stage 13 was a windy, cold,
and brutal day for the bike race.

So when young Heinrich Haussler
broke away,

he had a very slim chance at winning.

However, the pack
let down their guard,

and sometimes the will of a man
is underestimated.

(CHEERING)

Frustrated riders tried to
bridge the gap up to the breakaway.

But the damage had been done.

Heinrich was simply out of reach.

He'd made the early breakaway,
scrambled over three mountains,

through 200km of horribly cold rain.

And proved, on this day,
he was the most motivated cyclist
in the Tour de France.

He finished almost seven minutes
in front of the peloton.

Every rider who enters
the Tour de France will face
a stage that will test their will.

When sickness grows worse.

Or the legs scream back in defiance.

Or, worst of all,

when the mind has had enough.

To be the man leading the hardest
race in the world, to wear the
maillot jaune,

really is a very special thing.

However,
reaching for the yellow jersey

can be a siren's song,

and the Tour,
by design, is very punishing.

In 2006, George Hincapie
grasped the maillot jaune for a day.

Placing him in an elite group of only
five Americans to have done this.

Even big George has
the ability to win a race,

as he did with style
on stage 15 of the 2005 Tour.

He will always be known for being
Lance Armstrong's right-hand man.

George, though, defines the title
super-domestique

as he has quietly earned
the respect of the peloton.

And a place beside
the greatest legends of the sport.

Starting off is definitely tough.

I remember, when I started
as a young American kid,

the first couple of years I got no
respect in the peloton from the
older, more established pros.

That's something that I got
gradually, as the years went on.

I show respect to all riders.

Doesn't matter if they're young
or old, weak or strong.

To me, they're the same.

This sport is so hard, everybody
deserves the same respect.

I think I've helped, in a small way,
grow the popularity of the sport
here in the United States.

And have people be more aware
of the Tour de France.

What it is.

It seems like, in America, it's
gotten a lot more popular.

Today is going to make the two last
days look like holidays.

Like a holiday in Beirut.

(LAUGHTER)

Stalingrad.

From the start, Bernie and Captain
America, you talk together.

OK, gentlemen?

Vive la France!

Stage 14 of this year's
Tour de France

has got to be the single day

where so much went wrong.

On every single aspect.

It was an incredibly bad day
on every front.

Everybody knew that the chances of
a breakaway succeeding were higher

because AG2R had been
controlling now for a week.

They were getting tired.

So the chances of a breakaway
making the finish line was greater.

George Hincapie, who's been a
professional since 1994,
is in this breakaway.

He's one of the older campaigners.
36 years of age.

He started the day 5min 25sec
behind in the overall classification.

If he gets to the finish line
5min 25 sec ahead of the main field,

he will be the new leader
in the race.

It's going to be touch and go.

You shouldn't take sides
when you're commentating,

but my fingers are crossed
for George Hincapie.

People just think about themselves
when they go on their bike to do
some grocery shopping.

'Yeah, I do about five miles.'

So when they see you coming, they
think, 'Oh, he's far away. I can
still cross the road.'

You know, when we come
with the whole bunch.

Some situations are quite dangerous.

Not everybody knows
how fast we go through.

Or how dangerous it really is.

All of a sudden,
there's people waving like that.

We go by as a peloton.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see...

Like a mass of rags and...

And flesh. I didn't know what it was.

All of a sudden, it clicked.

A poor woman had been hit
by a police motorbike.

She'd been crossing the road.
A police motorbike,

they look after the race, make
sure it runs securely, had hit her.

And she died instantly.

That was a horrific thing for every
rider on that peloton who saw it.

Something that made you feel,
you know, really, really bad.

That put a darker on everything.

Everything for the day.

It was a long day thinking of that.

The poor woman.

Her family.
She'd come out to watch the race.

And it ends in tragedy.

It was a good decision of George
Hincapie to go into a breakaway.

We were just commentating on it,

but dismissing it in our minds
as 'Here we go again. It will
be caught before the finish.'

Then we realised,
'I'm not so sure it will be caught.
It's going places.'

Then, all of a sudden, we started
calculating how much time George
needed to gain -

he had the best place
in the breakaway over all -

to become the next yellow jersey.
And he got the time.

I had in the back of my head to
try to stay close to the leaders

throughout the first
ten days of the race.

Because I knew that I could possibly
get in one of those breakaways.

Had I been four or five minutes
behind, I had a good shot
at getting the yellow jersey.

AG2R, Phil,
do not have the firepower.

They're swinging off the group here.

And leaving the pacemaking
up to Team Astana.

Astana have absolutely no reason
at all to pull back George Hincapie.

Then you've got a situation where
Astana decided

'Yeah, it would be great
if George gets the yellow jersey.

Good for him. Good for us.
He's an American.

And he ain't going to win the Tour.

So we can afford for him to come out
of the day with a lead of two
minutes.'

I commented at the time
they chased it down.

Lance has criticised me.
I believe that they made a mistake.

They did allow the break
to go further ahead.

Then they control
the head of the race.

With all the pace.

And then the gap was holding.

Unfortunately,
they held it too close.

Because they didn't rely
on a double-cross.

The thing that put the nail into
the coffin of George getting the
yellow jersey on that occasion

was the way that
Team Garmin-Slipstream rode.

I, as a professional bike rider,

can't understand
why they rode like that.

That is the third group on the road,
led by Hincapie.

Hincapie's not worried about
second or third on a stage like this.

He's more concerned about the
seconds that might bring him
the yellow jersey

for the second time in his career.

Here's the chase now.

Not sure why the rider
from Slipstream

is on the front doing some tempo,
helping the AG2R team.

They want to go as slowly
as they can.

They're trying to get a set-up
perhaps for some points.

They know that Maaskant's
been dropped.

So for the Garmin squad, they're
trying to chase a little bit.

But I would let AG2R do all
the work if I was in the peloton.

George doesn't make enemies.

He had friends in Garmin as well.

But they were riding to instructions.

Team management, at some level,

had issued instructions to chase.

For no gain.

They were riding like men possessed.

They were hitting speeds of 50kph.

The clock was tumbling down
as they approached the finish.

No question they were out to destroy
the time gap.

They knew they couldn't catch
the leaders.

They could say this is sport,
but I don't see it as sport.

Sport doesn't work like that.

Sport is you give 100%,
that person gives 100%.

And the best man wins. That's sport.

Sergeui Ivanov, we expected him
to make his move.

He did exactly that.

He wins this stage for Russia
and for Katusha.

He's stolen the show.

A long breakaway today.
That's the stage-winner.

But who is the leader tonight?
They're coming very close on him.

We have to start the clock now.

Wait five minutes and 25 seconds
from when Nicolas Roche
crossed the line

to see whether or not
the main field are going to come in
with the yellow jersey.

It is going to be very close
for George Hincapie here.

Michael Rogers is trying
to deliver Tony Martin,

followed by Mark Renshaw,

followed by the Missile himself.

Locked into the back of the Missile
is the green jersey of Thor Hushovd.

They're going to start the sprint.
Tony Martin is trying to delay it
as much as possible.

On the inside is the green jersey
of Hushovd.

That should be close enough
to keep it.

He's waiting for him to go.

My calculation is George Hincapie
is going to miss out on the yellow
jersey by three seconds.

When George crossed the finishing
line after that,

I've never seen him so upset.

He felt his old friend Armstrong
had run him down.

George was a broken man.

He was bitter.

The feud went on for a few months
after the Tour.

No words passed. Lance was
desperately trying to coax him back
to be a friend.

But George didn't know.

He couldn't have known
what was happening behind.

His real enemy was Garmin.

They had chased him down.
They had destroyed him.

They were the perpetrators,
for whatever reason they had.

It's funny to hear the different
reactions that people have
on that day.

Some people say
it's just bike racing.

But I've raced more Tour de Frances
than anybody.

For sure, any of those people that
are saying that it's just bike
racing, it wasn't bike racing.

That was just out of pure spite.

I lost the jersey by five seconds.

It was probably,
as far as results go,

one of the biggest
disappointments of my career.

I never felt for anyone
like I felt for George that day.

To have something taken away from
him for political reasons, not
sporting reasons, it was pretty dark.

His family was there. His wife
was there with his two kids.

You could see the disappointment
in him.

So we get back to the hotel.
I'm in massage.

Rolf comes in. Says, 'Cav, they've
took the stage away from you.'

Then it came on the television.

The infamous video of the barriers
coming out.

Thor coming the wrong side.

Every sprinter knows you don't
come on the inside of a sprint.

If you're behind,
you don't come on the inside.

Then you're the one in the wrong.
You're creating a dangerous move.

I was asked to study the
photo-finish and the replays of
the run in towards the finish line.

I studied them several times
for British television.

I disagree with the fact
that Mark Cavendish was relegated.

It was his first offence.

A severe warning, maybe monetary
or a fine of a certain number of
points, five or ten,

would have been appropriate.

Sadly, the rules are simple.

If the referee agrees,
you're relegated.

You're not disqualified
from the Tour de France,

you're relegated from the front,
where you finished, to the back.

That could be one place,
if there's only two of you.

In Cavendish's place,
over 150 riders in the group.

So he finished 154th or something,
at the back of the group.

No points for the green jersey.
Hushovd gets his points.

With hindsight in Paris,
those points would have given him
the green jersey.

Mark was the unintended victim

of our chance to grab
the yellow jersey.

We wound up losing both.

If you're going to be a cyclist,
you better be used to going for it
when you get the chance.

And knowing that it may not work.

The Tour will do all it can to break
even the most determined rider.

If not in the heat, then in the wind.

If not in the rain,
then in the mountains.

The Pyrenees mountains were first
included in the 1910 Tour de France.

As the first rider passed over
the top of the Col d'Aubisque, he
shouted at the race organisers,

'You are assassins! Yes, assassins!'

This is what we've expected.

It had to come.
He's seen his teammates do it.

Now the pace is going to lift.

Andy Schleck is on the offensive.
Nibali is on behind him.

They've split the peloton.

Frank Schleck in third position.

Alberto Contador is there.

Wiggins has gone with them.

Lance Armstrong is missing.

Andy Schleck is setting this
relentless tempo.

Frank is with him as well.

Contador is looking
at the countryside.
He's in no trouble at all.

He's waited until he saw the chance.

Lance Armstrong is counting
the move of his team.

Kim Kirchen is getting
a free passage here as well.

Although his face
is a picture of pain.

Two minutes and eight seconds now.

This is Lance Armstrong. He's
dislodged a climber from Columbia,
Uran,

and he's dislodged Van De Walle.

Gone straight by Frank Schleck.

Goodbye, Frank.
You're not having this back wheel.

Armstrong is doing
a phenomenal ride.

He's going to go straight by
Jens Voigt.

Very shortly, he'll be back
onto the group of Bradley Wiggins.

Wiggins now has decided
to set the tempo of this field.

Armstrong is almost back.

He's grappling the last few metres

to get himself into this leading
elite group of professional
bike riders

of the Tour de France 2009.

Contador looks over his shoulder.

Lance has arrived.

Big stare from Andy Schleck. He must
be surprised to see Armstrong here.

For the sprinters,
the mountains are horrible.

At the back of the race,
the Australian Mark Renshaw,

the faithful lead-out man
for Mark Cavendish,

was barely hanging on.

The hardest part would have to be
getting through the mountains.

I have to give 110%
just to finish those stages.

They're not naturally my terrain.

So it makes it all the more harder.

We had a really difficult start.

Straight uphill from the word go.

I was on the back foot
the whole day, chasing.

All I wanted to do was get
to the top of this climb.

I had Valerio in the car behind me,
pushing me.

Bernie, Bernie, wait.

When you are suffering
on your bike in a climb

and you see that it's still 20kms
to go to the top,

it's mentally hard.

So you have to be strong
in your head.

And keep going.

If you get pain, everybody get pain.

It's the hardest part of the race.

The crucial part of every race.

Just walking through pain there
every day and day again.

The hardest part is the mountains.

I hate the mountains.

You guys are just super dynamo!

You're loaded with talent!

Loaded! I'm Tony Martin.

Come on, Hincapie!

Ride! Allez!

A climber can give 100%
mentally and physically.

But they can get a result
at the end of it.

Which kind of changes
your perception of it.

But if you're doing
the same just to survive...

For a cyclist,
it's just like normal work.

Some mornings you wake up, you just
know it's going to be a bad day.

If you're a salesman,
you're not going to sell (BLEEP).

You just got the feeling
it's not my day.

I put on the wrong shirt.
My hair's wrong.

Going to be a long day at the office.

Same as the cyclists.
You start, your legs, oh, oh.

The photographers and
television cameramen on motorcycles

are the bravest men in the world
as far as I'm concerned.

It's the one job, I don't care how
much you pay me, I would not do it.

When you see these guys keeping up,
the rain is torrential,

they're going to go up a mountain
and descend with the riders.

Watson has to get in there
with a still camera

and get the shots that matter
as they matter.

The moment of the attack,
for example, that decides the Tour.

What will he think if he missed it?

But to be there at that moment,
because you don't know
which moment and when.

I look for emotion
more than anything else.

Emotion covers just about everything.

Sadness, happiness, tragedy.

It covers somebody winning a stage
of the Tour de France.

That's emotional.

Someone falling off and crashing out
is emotional.

I look for the beauty of the sport,
which covers everything.

The scenery in the Alps
and the Pyrenees.

Beauty is also a cyclist
in full flight.

Contador, a very beautiful guy
to watch on a bicycle.

It is the only sport in the world

where you're working
inside the sport.

You are on a motorbike.

You're in between the bikes.

You are very close to the riders.

Very close to all the people
who are working in cycling.

It's the only sport where you are
really participating in the sport.

It's the same like cyclists.

You're doing your job and you're
not really thinking about
the dangers that are around you.

You're thinking in front.
The next day, the next event.

You have to react very quickly.

When a rider falls down,
for example,

you don't have two minutes
to stand there and look.

'Are you OK?' and everything.

It's a reaction.
You shoot and you think afterwards.

This is my 17th Tour.

I started young, when I was 20.

But no problem.

I can do 17 more.

I have seen grown journalists
in tears

because they are frightened to death
of going down the mountains in a car.

With the wheels screeching
and the brakes smelling.

(SCREECHING)

I used to go to bed at night,
look at the mountains we'd crossed,

and look at the mountains
we still had to cross,

I'd put a tick
and say I'm still alive.

We're going to be treated to a
daredevil descent on the other side
of this mountain.

Jens Voigt, I wonder sometimes
where he gets it from.

He was in the breakaway.
He got dropped by this group.

He fought his way back up.
He knows his teammates need him.

He needs to keep setting the pace
for as long as possible.

It crosses your mind that all your
protection is a tiny little helmet.

All your connection to the ground
is two centimetres of rubber
touching the ground

and you sitting on that.

I just don't want to die there.

I don't need to take
any crazy risks.

It is a very savage
and technical descent

on the run-in down towards the line
here in Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

That's where we have to get to
after a 19-mile, 31km, descent.

I was apparently three minutes
unconscious.

I didn't answer to them.

But I lost about 20-30 minutes
of my memory.

I don't want it back,
these memories.

Only going to be full of pain.
I don't need it.

But nobody ever said it's going
to be easy to be a cyclist.

Beloki's gone down.
Armstrong is off the road as well!

He's into the field.

He's gone across.

I've never seen this before.

Armstrong went across the field
there.

He's back on the road.

Think this is normal?

My back the other day was so sore.

I was having spasms in my back
the whole day.

I could hardly pedal.

I felt like stopping.

If it had have been any other race,
I probably would have stopped.

If you go to the Tour,
you have to get to the finish.

Unless you've crashed so bad
that you can't continue.

Or you break a bone or something.

I ended up breaking my collarbone.

I didn't know about it.
I didn't want to know about it.

But I knew there was something
majorly wrong with my shoulder.

Put one of those non-sticky ones
on there.

What is this?

I never shave there.

I told the team doctor
I didn't want to get an X-ray.

Got taped up and dealt with the pain
for the next four days.

It was very important to me
to make it to the finish.

(HORN)

If you're going to finish
the Tour de France , you've got to
get up and continue to ride.

Even if you've got no seat left
in your shorts.

They've got to finish.
That's what's made it what it is.

It isn't an easy event.
It is pain from the word go.

Just when you think you're reaching
the limit of your pain,

you've got to go through that barrier
and persuade yourself you can go
one more pain notch higher.

I'd better wake up
before we start this thing.

(CHEERING)

Daddy!

Daddy!

We didn't have a lot of good luck
the last few days.

The green jersey went.
George getting chased down.

But the cyclists,
they're not made of chocolate.

I mean, they are tough (BLEEP).

They're going to come back.

The Tour's never finished in Aubenas.

A nasty surprise waited for the men
looking to win that day.

Before the finish line
was a category two climb, 15km long.

As we approached the finish, I went,
'Boy, there's no way Mark Cavendish
can win this stage.'

It was quite a slog up to the line.

I sat the guys down
on the bus that morning.

Please, guys, I can do this.
But I need every single one of you.

It wasn't a case of just getting
over as best I could.

I had to look like I wasn't trying.

If I look like I'm trying,
they're going to turn it on more.

We'll keep an eye out for
Mark Cavendish and Thor Hushovd
to be left behind.

Bernhard Eisel.

Good job.

We came to 1km from the top and
everybody says Cav is still
in the first group.

What?!

Now what they've got to do is pull
back those two leaders and try and
make it a day for Cavendish.

That won't be easy.

It was 50:50 whether
he could keep it up or not.

We were taking big risks
on these corners.

You know that little thing
in your mind that says, kind of,
'I shouldn't really do that'?

We don't have that.

George Hincapie
into second wheel there.

This is the man who
has a suspected broken collarbone.

Still riding his Tour de France
for Cavendish.

There is the catch
at 1.2km from the line.

Cavendish needs to win it
for the boys this afternoon.

They've done a great job for him.

An almost slow-motion sprint. Now
they've seen the hill,
they've got to hang on.

Mark Cavendish can't possibly
hold on for this long, can he?

Yes.

This man really tried
this afternoon, Phil.

He pushed himself so far.

Unbelievable.

That was one of the key
of our success.

If you don't feel good
during three weeks,

it's not possible to do something
good during the race.

The race is maybe five hours a day.

But after that,
you have to live with a big group.

More than 30 persons.

Everybody together
in the same hotel.

Everybody at breakfast together.

At dinner together.

It's important to have
a great atmosphere.

With Team Columbia, it's perfect.

It's more than a work atmosphere.

It's a friend atmosphere.

I like that. I like that.

Vive la Columbia!

Tica-taca-tica-taca!

Oi oi oi!

Tica-taca-tica-taca!
Oi oi oi!

This is Saturday in Provence.

In the month of July.

We've been here many times before on
Mont Ventoux.

I've never seen a crowd like this.

It's a storied mountain.

Steeped in Tour history
and feared by all.

In the 1967 Tour,

former world champion Tom Simpson
pushed himself so hard,

he collapsed 2km from the summit.

He died trying to win that day.

So the desire to win there
is incredible.

It was always going to be a battle
amongst the top four or five men.

When you get that situation, and
nobody else can break into that
cluster of five men,

other riders attack.

They hit the pedals in front of
the biggest crowd we've ever seen
on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.

I've got a feeling this crowd
will go right to the top.

Juan Manuel Garate, former champion
of Spain, who rides for the Dutch
Rabobank squad, he jumped early on.

He was chased by Tony Martin,
who's going to be a wonderkid.

He's going to be a great bike rider.

He's got a super future
in front of him.

But he went after Garate,
a known climber.

Garate and Tony Martin, the
heroes of a full day in the lead.

There were 16 at one stage.

These are the last two.

They will throw every punch
they've got left in the Tour now.

The result will be the final
shuffling of the classification.

We've got a banner up here.

It's got nothing on it.

It should say 1km to go.

This is the finish. Garate a little
bit stronger. Much more experienced.

Tony Martin, a rider who could
one day win the Tour de France.

Today he'll finish second
on Mont Ventoux.

Garate, the first man
to attack the mountain,

has finished it off.

The times that matter are right here.

As they come up to the line,
it is Andy Schleck.

Contador salutes his win
of the Tour de France.

Armstrong is there.
What a race we have seen.

Martin was just too young
to be the man to win.

Garate was the old experienced hand.

And the better climber on the day.

But Martin showed us,
on that day, he gave his all.

Mont Ventoux requires you give all.

It's a horrible climb.

It's a horrible mountain.

I don't really think you have the
decision, all alone, to be a legend.

You cannot plan it.

Just being like a stereotypical
rider of that course.

OK, I pushed 475 watts
and I won this race.

Nobody wants to hear that.

People want,
'I was suffering so much.

I didn't listen to that inner voice
that told me to stop.

I gave it a go and I did one
more time and I was almost dying.

I pulled it off.'
That's what people inspires.

Reminds me of that movie Gladiator.

When the old gladiator to the young
one says, 'Hey, I was the best
gladiator because I won the crowd.'

That's a big part of it.

People got to love you
because they make you into a legend.

Everybody's got pressure today.

Whether it's trying to hold
their spot or stay out of trouble.

We'll have a bit more than most
because we've got to control
the race.

The first three hours
should be pretty easy.

Normally, nobody attacks.

Just ride around and parade.

The Champs-Elysees
is worldwide known
as the finish of the Tour de France.

If you make the Champs-Elysees
and finish the Tour de France,

you've completed the most gruelling
sporting event on the planet.

People are stressed.

Angry.

And all...
because they are just tired.

When we went into Champs-Elysees,
everybody expect we would win.

We had just started.

I opened the window.

There was the Danish prime minister,
Lars Lokke.

He said,
'You guys have got to win today.'

That really helps (!)

For three weeks, the peloton in the
Tour de France have been seeking out
Paris.

They have found the city today.

You could say this is a perfect day
to end the Tour de France this year.

Alberto Contador won
the Tour de France.

He followed that up by the Tour of
Italy, the Tour of Spain,

and No.4, the Tour de France
for a second time.

Lance Armstrong has been
this way many times before.

Seven times as a winner.

Now he's sitting just in front
of the next winner of the Tour de
France, his teammate Contador.

The Place de la Concorde. Right onto
the slopes of the Champs-Elysees.

Attacks have started.
Barredo has made the first move.

You can see, all of a sudden,
despite a very slow start
to the race, it is on.

On the downhill section,
they are touching 55kmh.

Which is a remarkable speed
when you think these guys
have been racing for three weeks.

It's brought the whole
of the Columbian team to the front.

Right behind Mark Cavendish is his
arch-rival for the green jersey
Thor Hushovd of Norway.

It's going to be left to Columbia
to do all of the work
to catch these riders.

The main field is charging across
Place de la Concorde.

Now they can actually estimate
the distance between themselves
and that leading group of seven.

They can understand how much
pressure they need to put on

to pull them back into the fold
before the finish.

All of the sprinters left in this
bike race want to win here on the
Champs-Elysees.

It really is regarded as the place
to win if you're a sprinter.

For Mark Cavendish,
in his third Tour de France,

he finally gets to see the finish.

He retired in the first two.

The first one and last year.

So far his team are on
the front end of the main field.

They've brought it down
to 12 seconds now.

There is the bell. One lap to go
to the end of the Tour de France.

There's a train of Team Garmin.

This is interesting.

Garmin-Slipstream have tried
for three weeks how to outwit
Mark Cavendish.

Everything they've tried has failed.

Now they're trying to do
something different.

Mickey Rogers has got
a mechanical problem.

A flat tyre? A back tyre out.

That's lost them the strong man.

There's a little bit of panic
amongst HTC at the moment.

Cavendish is having to take the full
broadside of the other riders
around him.

Guys, if you don't
break up the teamwork of
Columbia, you'll never win.

Here comes the counter-attack
at 1km to go.

Hincapie has swung the line
across to the other side.

There's a challenge coming back
from Garmin-Slipstream on the inside.

Look at the speed of the riders!
This is Mark Renshaw.

The fastest lead-out man
in the business.

There's the Missile.
He's locked on to his wheel now.

This is going to be a formality.

He has got the victory!

No British cyclist
has ever been remotely close.

Best (BLEEP) sprint
ever on the Champs Elysees!

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