Tour de France 2009...

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The Tour has wrestled with the format in recent years, fearing that a wide disparity between teams could result in too great of an impact on the overall individual standings of the Tour.

 

To address that concern in 2004, the Tour established a rather odd system in which only the winning team

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In case you

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The first two teams, Caisse d'Epargne and Katusha, are now underway. Teams are starting at seven-minute intervals, a pattern that will continue throughout the day.

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Today's start times are based on the reverse order of team GC standings, meaning Astana will be the final team out of the start house:

 

2:30 Caisse d'Epargne

2:37 Katusha

2:44 Rabobank

2:51 Lampre-NGC

2:58 Bbox Bouygues Telecom

3:05 AG2R-La Mondiale

3:12 Skil-Shimano

3:19 Fran

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CRASH - Rabobank rider just went down

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It was Menchov, sliding out on a lefthander when he was on the second wheel

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The Giro champ has not had a good start to this Tour de France

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And that was on the easy part of the course ...

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Teams are riding at 7-minute intervals, perhaps a little more time than normal due to the difficulty of the course. There's no place for teams to pass each other on this course. Race organizers don't want a bottleneck in the TTT

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Lampre just rolled down start ramp as the fourth team on course. Their top GC man, Marzio Bruseghin, went down in a crash yesterday. He finished in the main pack despite hitting the deck.

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Looks like two Lampre riders went down on the same corner as Menchov, looks like world champ Alessandro Ballan. Must be some oil on the roads there.

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There are three time checks on the course. The first is at 10km, just after the route exits the traffic clutter in Montpellier. The second is at 19.5km, after the most challenging climbs; and the third at 30.7km, just ahead of the wide-open, flatter part of the course heading back to the finish line.

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Rabobank has their water bottles mounted on the back of their saddles. Nice aerodynamic touch.

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Out on the road, Katusha appears to have lost sprinter Napolitano. He's struggling

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Caisse d'Epargne is 12:35 at first time check at 10km for fastest reference for earliest teams

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Of all the main GC teams, most think Cadel Evans has the weakest squad with Silence-Lotto for today's TTT. Astana, Columbia, Garmin and SaxoBank will ride well, with Cervelo probably in for a surprise. It will be interesting to see how Silence can hold up against the powerhouses.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

In fact, that's just what Alberto Contador said: "It's hard to take time on Evans in the climbs and in the individual time trials, so we have to take advantage of this opportunity to try to widen a gap on him."

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Mostly westerly winds today, meaning it is head-crosswinds for most of the stage. The winds are strongest on the middle part of the course when it climbs up into the hills above Montpellier. The teams will see some tailwinds on the final 8km to the finish line. Winds are gusty, blowing up to 25kph, so it will be a major factor.

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Katusha has lost another rider...

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Rabobank is 50sec slower than Caisse d'Epargne at the second time check. Waiting for Menchov after that crash slowed them, but they aren't going that fast anyway.