One of my favorite riders in the peloton is Jens Voigt of Team CSC Saxo Bank. To me he exemplifies everything that it takes to be and act like a professional cyclist. He can be counted on to go and do whatever the team director asks whether it is to go to the front to reel in a late race breakaway, or set pace in the mountains to launch their team leader. He does these tasks with little hesitation and his pounding style on the bike when he is going hard is visible evidence that he is sacrificing himself for his team.

Just when you thought you had seen him do it all, there he is climbing with all the favorites on the Col du Tourmalet. Make no mistake, Jens is not built to be a climber. The man has some meat on his bones, you won't see him getting blown over in a strong wind. It is almost as if he simply wills himself up the road. On the Tourmalet, pre-race favorites Alejandro Valverde and Damiano Cunego had been dropped, but there was Jens still in the lead group doing his job. He had company in his uber-teammate Fabian Cancellara and when the lead group hit the flats to the base of the final climb, the two Team CSC Saxo Bank riders drilled it to bring back all the breakaways and set up the exciting finish which saw their teammate, Frank Schleck, miss the yellow jersey by the slimmest of margins.

It was mission accomplished for Jens and Fabian. Just another day as a domestique at the Tour. To be fair, Jens wins his share of races during the year. This past March he won the Criterium International for the umpteenth time with an audacious breakaway on the race's hilly second stage. Last year, he won the week-long Tour of Germany, his home tour for the second time.

I got the chance to hang out with Jens this past February at the Team CSC training camp. We chatted about a number of things. Jens' wife had just given birth to their fifth child, he remarked that he is 37, but he needed to get a five-year extension on his contract as he had a lot of mouths to feed. We talked about the immigration problems facing the US and Jens remarked that Germany had similar problems, having imported a lot of cheap labor from Turkey. He was surprised at his popularity in the USA, recounting the story of being out on a training ride in Southern California only to have a UPS driver pull over, stop, lean out of his cab and yell, "Go Jensy!"

Personally, I hope Jens gets that extension. The pro peloton wouldn't be the same without him.

Bruce

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You might be wondering why, with four stage wins, Mark Cavendish isn't wearing the green jersey of the race's best sprinter. The reason is simple, he doesn't contest every sprint and the ones he is absent from the front he is way back just hanging out. A rider like Thor Hushovd or Oscar Friere may not be winning as much, but the points they are scoring for their top-5 and top-10 finishes each stage are enough to offset the 35 points Cavendish gets for each win. If you really want the green jersey, you have to try and contest all the sprints.

Gerlosteiner's Sven Krauss was involved in a horrifying crash in the closing kilometers when he hit a metal traffic sign in the middle of the road at the entrance to a roundabout. Somebody in the Tour organization wasn't doing their job. There is usually a gendarme waving a flag and blowing a whistle at such dangerous signs. Luckily for Krauss, his bike, which was broken in two, appeared to suffer the majority of the damage.

Today, Scott-Saunier Duval Team management fired both Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli. They accounted for all three of the teams stage wins at the Tour.

For those of you who were unable to see the photo of the Euskatel-Euskadi rider giving his bottle to a young fan at a stage finish, check the previous blog "Tour of Surprises Continues" it should be visible now. BTW, the kid's father gave me his E-mail address and I mailed him a copy of the photo.

We all know who the Texas Tornado is and his chief rival Der Kaiser. How about 'the Cannibal' or 'Pou-Pou'? It is a pretty common practice in the sporting world to give our favorite athletes nicknames. Some, like the aforementioned Cannibal, describe the way they ride a bike while others like 'Chechu' Rubiera are named for for their mother's favorite character in a Spanish radio soap opera.

Sometimes it is easy to figure out where the nickname came from. Eddy Merckx is pretty much considered the best professional rider to ever throw a leg over a bike. He won an amazing one-third of the races he entered and would simply destroy his competition when he saw fit. He was given that name by a journalist in the early 70's and it stuck. The cannibal is a totally appropriate name to describe Merckx's riding style.

There have been some other pretty good nicknames in the past. Bernard Hinault was the badger for his fierce competitive nature. The diminutive, two-time World Champion Paolo Bettini is known as the cricket. Rouler exceptionale Fabian Cancellara was given the moniker 'Spartacus' by a teammate from his days on the Italian Fassa Bortolo team. The winner of the 2006 Paris-Roubaix, which closely resembles a chariot race, could easily be mistaken for a Roman gladiator.

Scott-Saunier Duval rider Riccardo Ricco is known as the Cobra, a name given to him by a friend. It is not known what prompted that name, but his consistently aggressive riding style in the past two Giro d'Italias certainly seem to indicate that it's a pretty good call. And if you saw him launch his searing attack today on the Col du Aspin there is no doubt that he name is well-deserved. Ricco launched with such absolute fury that the lead group simply had no response.

Do you have any favorite rider nicknames to share or have you made up a nickname or two you would like to propose for a rider?

Bruce

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Race Notes

It was great to see Christian Vandevelde finish in the lead group which moved him up to 3rd overall. He looked relaxed and content as he crossed the finish line. Here's hoping that Christian continues to show his climbing form tomorrow on the Col du Tourmalet and Huatacam. He is clearly capable of being there.

Will Frischkorn stopped by after the finish and remarked that he was loving the grupetto days such as this when he could just ride tempo and not worry about going up the road. He called his move on Stage 3 'the suicide breakaway which never succeeds' and was pleased that all four riders in the group wanted to work hard enough to take it to the finish.

The big guns will be firing on the Col du Tourmalet and Huatacam tomorrow. Both these climbs have the capability to rip the race apart. Look for the majority of the action to come on the 8-mile 3700' climb of Huatacam to the finish.