!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!It always amazes me how people become experts of what they know so little about. To try to give some of the readers knowledge of what really happens out here...

First, yes, we are given a detailed book of the finishes with usually the last three kilometers very detailed. On today’s stage, the race actually went on the opposite side of the roundabout as shown in the book. So when the field was expecting a sweeping roundabout, we ended up in an S-turn. That was a mistake the organizers made. The riders were never given that little bit of detail.

Secondly, we, the riders, have been asking for safer finishes for some time, and they are not happening. And again, you would only know this information if you are a rider in the Tour. Races get complaints from the UCI when they are unsafe. If they get enough complaints, they get moved down in category. But this is the Tour--they are not moving down in category. So it’s much harder to get someone to change things when they have little to lose.

Here’s a little story to put things in perspective: Sometimes I train with one of the top 10 moto GP guys in the world. He loves to ride for cross-training. We were coming down a very windy mountain and I led the way.

When we got to the bottom, he asked me, “How do you guys do it...take those corners in the tour without blinking an eye?”

I looked at him, and said, “Wait, you hit speeds of over 300 kilometers per hour and you're asking me that?”

His reply was, “We have huge amounts of simulation and practice to perfect those corners, but you guys have never seen that corner!”

Go ask a Formula One driver or Moto GP guy to start a race unseen.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His nickname, "Fast Freddie," is due to his reputation as a sprint specialist. His Fast Freddie Coffee , the Fast Freddie Foundation, and his new Team Fast Freddie raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, USA and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!The hard thing about this is it’s not the first time I have faced a survival day at the Tour. So I knew exactly what I had ahead of me.

In most races under these strains, I just pull out and recover for the next one. But it’s almost a tradition that you go out there for the Tour de France until you can't go any more.

I woke up this morning feeling very sore, especially my right hamstring. I just couldn’t use it. I wasn’t sure how I would pull that off on the bike. My body was in a bit of shock. My stomach was giving me problems. I couldn’t eat.

When the race started, I had no idea what my outcome would be. I braced myself for the first attack. All I could do was hold the wheel in front of me. The wind came from the side, and I knew it was going to be a battle.

I kept finding myself at the back of the group just hanging on for dear life. I couldn’t activate my left hamstring so it felt like I was pedaling a BMX bike.

At one point, I couldn’t take it anymore. I really thought that was it. I was going to pull out. But I kept fighting and kept fighting, since I seemed to have just a little more fight in me. Or it could have been that the fight in the others was starting to die.

I somehow survived the crosswinds and kept contact with the field. But I knew the battle had just started. With 65km to go, we had a pretty hard Cat 2 climb and I knew that if we raced up it, I would be left alone.

I was pretty lucky, as the road was very open and the wind was blowing strong straight in our faces. That made the pace in the peloton doable.

Once I survived the climb, I knew I would make it. I was starting to fade, since I couldn’t eat anything with my stomach not feeling well. I decided to hold on a bit longer. The last 50km was fast downhill, with some small climbs just to change things around.

I just followed along and it felt like I was in the back end of a Formula One race, when suddenly, the guy in front of me couldn’t hold the speed. I called that my sign to take it easy and ride in.

I had survived a day that could have easily been my ticket home.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His nickname, "Fast Freddie," is due to his reputation as a sprint specialist. His Fast Freddie Coffee, the Fast Freddie Foundation, and his new Team Fast Freddie raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, USA and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!Sorry guys. Haven’t been keeping up with my blogs. I guess the fatigue of the race is starting to slow me a bit.

Yesterday was one of those long days where I just had it set in my head that I would sit in the peloton and rest as much as possible.

That proved to be hard as the pace was out of control. The heat being up in the 100s didn't help. Yesterday we all knew a breakaway would go, but after 70 kilometers we started to wonder as the race was still all together.

As guys relaxed a bit and people took their nature breaks, the attack went. It was almost funny to watch as they basically rolled off the front, while most of us just watched. It would have taken only three pedal strokes for anyone to cover that move, but at the same time, everyone was happy to see it go.

After that, Rabobank chased all day. The pace wasn’t too high, but with a long and hot day, it seemed to go on forever. I remember being very happy to see the first KOM banner, as it meant the race was coming to an end.

So, after all that, I don't think I had much of a rest day, but I don't think anyone else did either, so we are at par. The worst went to the breakaway boys. They sure had a hard day.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His nickname, "Fast Freddie," is due to his reputation as a sprint specialist. His Fast Freddie Coffee , the Fast Freddie Foundation , and his new Team Fast Freddie help to raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, USA and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!Just got our first teaser to the mountains. I wouldn’t call it a real mountain stage, but by the way we raced, probably harder.

From the start, the pace was high. Everyone was looking for a good breakaway, but it wasn’t happening.

Not good news for me because if the break didn’t go in the flats, it for sure would go in the first climb. That meant lots of suffering for me.

We hit the climb and the attacks were on. I think I saw Hincapie try like four or five times, but teams are afraid of him getting too big of a lead, as he could be a wild card for yellow.

Three kilometers from the top, the pace was just a bit too hot for me. I decided to follow the second group, as they seemed to be at a more reasonable pace.

I did make a mistake by drifting to the back of the group over the top, not knowing the roads were open. It meant for bad crosswinds. I was dead last in the group, which was costing me too much energy to hang. I knew there were other small groups, so I let go.

The hope was that our small group would eventually catch back on when the peloton would finally let the break go.

It took a bit longer than I expected. And my little group was having a hard time. Luckily, I had big guns Boonen and Robbie. We all rotated until we finally made contact with the whole group. I think everyone was feeling the effects of that early pace, so I wasn’t the only one in the red.

At that point, a big break had formed and we had no one to represent. Cadel was afraid that someone in that group would get too much time, so we decided to help CSC with the chase.

From then on the pace was high and the road just went up and down. My job now was to keep Cadel out of the wind. He seems to like my style of cruising through the peloton. I guess, being a sprinter, I seem to be able to open holes that are usually not there. Cadel is a bit of a nervous rider in the peloton, so I have to keep him close to the front. Sometimes I have to put him in his place when he wants to ride too far forward. Lot more wind for both of us. I try to keep him somewhere in the 20th position, at worst. Just far enough to get a good draft, but still close enough to stay out of trouble.

We passed the next couple of climbs pretty much under control. My teammates and CSC kept the pace. I was able to ride the front and keep Cadel in a comfortable spot.

Once we hit the flats, the race was on a fast pace and we needed to start making ground on the breakaway. With five kilometers from the bottom of the last climb, Lampre came up to give a hand. But they put the pace so high it really put everyone in the red.

As we entered the bottom of the climb, I saw the banner and it read 16 kilometers. At the same time, guys started to attack while others sprinted for their lives to keep up. I wasn’t sure how that helped any. It only got rid of the guys that would eventually drop off anyway, so I didn’t see the purpose.

I stayed at the front of the group for the first three kilometers in case Cadel needed my help. Then I noticed the road was so steep there would be little I could do, so...time to shut the engine off.

I decided to enjoy the crowds and the mountain as I went up. I basically went as slow as I could go up the climb. By the top, the group with the sprinters caught me.

At the top, I just hung with Robbie and my teammates. We had plenty of time to make the time cut, so we were in no hurry to make it to the finish. Again the crowds were good. Over the top of the last climb we could only pass one at a time.

Cadel tells me he had a good day and didn’t have to dig too deep. Chris seemed to have a harder day. He said he was at the limit over the last climb, but he was still with the first 25 guys. Still a good ride.

The rest of our climbers had a bit of a harder day. For our boys, it was just surviving, especially since some of them had some hard work over the course. Chris tells me that Vino didn’t look so hot on the climb, but that was expected.

It also seemed that not too many guys really had the gas to make any good attacks. Most guys attacked and could only hold a hard pace for no more than 500 meters.

The Tour is still pretty open and guys just don’t seem ready to show their cards. Or they’re scared to, in case it doesn’t pay off.

I think tomorrow will really show who has the legs to contend the tour, but I am expecting surprises too.

By the way, I have been sitting in the bus for an hour trying to get out of the finishing village. Piece of advice if you come to watch a Tour mountain finish: ride your bike to the finish or make sure you have a hotel there.

I would recommend coming to the tour. It’s worth the trip. Something you will always remember. But it isn’t easy, unless you’re my family member and have VIP passes.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His nickname, "Fast Freddie", is due to his reputation as a sprint specialist. His Fast Freddie Coffee, the Fast Freddie Foundation, and his new Team Fast Freddie help to raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, USA and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!I'm glad you guys are enjoying my detailed rider blog. Sorry about giving you the insider view of how bad the organization is, but someone has to :). Actually, that’s something I'm pretty passionate about, and maybe when I retire I’ll try to help jump start a real riders union--which we don't have!!

We were just talking over dinner the other day about how the organization gives us fines for nature breaks at the wrong time, or grabbing a bottle from the car for a bit too long. We should fine them for the bad hotels and dangerous roads. How would the organizers like it if I put them through the same pain? But as Horner puts it, "We’re in France, chances of finding a good bed are slim"--but I think he means during Le Tour de France.

A good thing that most of the top teams now have is a traveling team chef. Since we have no control over what we get from the organization, we have to take our meals into our own hands.

Our chef is pretty cool. He actually has his own camper, and an assistant to help him buy supplies. Every morning he makes my special omelette, just how I like it. The other day, I asked him if he could find a good bottle of wine for us. Cadel actually gave him a list of foods he likes, so he can keep a varying menu.

Actually I'm told the region we are in is well known for 2- and 3-star restaurants. And the specialty is some kind of well-known chicken breast. Tell you all about it if we get it tonight.

Kept seeing vineyards as we passed by but, sorry to say, I didn't catch the names as we flew by.

Just heard Vino had to get some 30 stitches. Little bit more than me. I’ll be surprised if we see any action from him in the next mountain stages.

Talking about hotels, we just arrived at this small village called Chatillon sur Chalaronne. The hotel is called Hotel de la Tour. Very cool, it’s a three-star but it’s one of those places you want to stay at once. Lots of funky, cool things to look at. Every room has something interesting and different. I would recommend room 13. Not Robbie’s room, though--that one’s way too small.

Today seemed like a very controlled race, with only one solo attacker. I think it took two minutes for the lone man to get away. From what I understand, he was not too happy to be alone. But as he said on TV today, "It makes for good TV."

Again, the weather was warm and the crowds were out. Everyone seemed to enjoy the easier pace after yesterday’s hard ride.

The only time the speed went up was for the sprint points. On the first one, Robbie went on the attack. Quickstep quickly got on it and brought him back. I decided to give an attack to make them work for their money. As we came into the last 500 meters, Robbie sat in front of me and Boonen and Zabel behind me. I decided to let a gap open. It seemed to work at first, but Boonen was able to close it and win the sprint. Disappointing, but it did cause Zabel to lose out on points.

Later, I asked Robbie why he attacked. He said he needed to open his legs up before the first sprint.

After that, we settled into a slow pace again. Finally, about halfway through, Quickstep decided to chase. But it was kind of weird that they started off very fast. I later found out that Robbie was changing his shoes and they wanted to take advantage of him. Not very cool.

After that sprint, we decided not to contest the next two sprints so as to save the legs for the final of the race.

I did go up to the front to watch Zabel and Boonen go at it. They really went for it. Also, Robbie Hunter was giving a go at it. This time, Zabel had one of his teammates sweep his wheel so as to give some one else a hard time. That happened to be Hunter. They did a bit of pushing around until Hunter almost found himself on his face. Not sure which guy was at fault, but it didn't look pretty. I later heard Hunter pushed the guy in the face--also not cool. Sprinters can be crazy

The next sprint, everyone decided to save it for the finish.

After that, we had easy roads to the finish. The field sped by without much effort. Not sure if I really like that. Tends to give some guys a false sense of hope that they’ve become sprinters, and get in our way.

We played it cool today. Everyone was everywhere. It seems like everyone had a leadout going, but no one seemed to keep the speed high. Robbie, Leif and I found each other with about 2km to go. We sat pretty good about 20 guys back. When we past the 1 km banner, we started to move up. Things looked good as we passed on the outside. Leif was doing a great job breaking the wind.

Suddenly, someone hit me from the side and I had to go hard on the brakes. Wasn’t sure what happened at first, but later I was told one of the T-mobile guys crossed wheels with someone and blew up his front wheel, causing him to run right into me.

Robbie was able to react fast and get around the mess. He jumped on Hunter’s wheel as they went through 500 meters to go. He then jumped around perfectly to land on Boonen's wheel.

At that moment, things looked good. When, in his typical fashion, Zabel came right into Robbie, almost crashing him. That caused Robbie to brake hard, having nowhere to move. We all know Zabel as the quaker in the peloton. He’s really not that fast, but is good at getting himself in the right place at the right time, even at the cause of others. Remember my crash earlier this week? Zabel was actually the one who caused it while he fought for Boonen’s wheel. This time he almost took Robbie out.

Let's just say we are not too happy with Zabel right now. This was our last chance this week for a stage win, and it didn't go as planned.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His nickname, "Fast Freddie", is due to his reputation as a sprint specialist. His Fast Freddie Coffee , the Fast Freddie Foundation, and his new Team Fast Freddie help to raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, USA and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!Today’s stage was much harder. More guys seemed interested in going on the attack.

I was feeling a bit better on the bike. I didn't have to keep checking my saddle like I did yersterday, thinking it was crooked, when it was actually my back.

The roads today proved to be a challenge. They were small and rough, which made it feel slower...and harder on the body.

The wind was a bit of a challenge as well, as guys kept fighting for position, waiting for the moment when the field could split. That only happened once, when Liquigas put everyone in the gutter. The field split in half and I was left with the second half. I didn't panic, seeing most of the Discovery guys missed the split. But I wondered what the Liquigas guys had in mind. Did they really think they were going to keep that pace for the next 150 kilometers? I don't think they really thought that plan through very well.

About halfway through the stage, my left hand started bothering me. I think the crash caused some pinching in my upper back, which went through my arm and down to my hand.

Everything was going as planned. CSC did most of the riding so we all waited a bit longer before we put any of our guys up to help in the chase. Today we decided to use two guys, but to rotate them so they wouldn’t have to work all day. We also didn't send them up until 50 kilometers to go.

We knew the road to the finish today was big and the wind was coming from behind, so it meant for a fast finish.

The fight in the last 10 kilometers proved to be intense. Everyone wanted to be in the action. I tried to surf the peloton as much as possible and keep an eye on Robbie. We also had Leif to help out, so he did the majority of the work keeping Robbie out of trouble. I just kept nearby for the final.

As we approached 3 kilometers, we fought to move up but hit too much wind. We noticed Wim was setting the pace very high, so I yelled on the radio for him to pull off, which would allow us to catch our breath and move up a bit faster.

Things started to get crazy. We sat about 20 back and lost Leif for a bit. With about 800 meters, I wanted to make a big move forward to put us within the front 10 guys. Robbie yelled for me to wait. I waited a bit longer, the speed picked up, then Leif appeared. I got on his wheel and he gave it one more hard pull.

But this time he wasn’t making any ground. The speed was too high and he was slowing. He finally pulled off, but at that moment the speed was so high that we had nowhere to go. The road got narrow and we almost didn’t make it. We had to break for a split second and that was basically it. Robbie sprinted around me but it was too late. We were too far back to even take part in the sprint.

We made a couple key mistakes.

First, we misread the finish. I think partly because we were aware of how small and dangerous the roads have been the last couple of stages...so we fought to stay up front too much. We normally wait longer to hit the front.

Second, at 800m, we should have made the big pass to put us in a better position before the big acceleration.

Third, I should have jumped around Leif when I saw he wasn't hitting the speed to pass.

Fourth (and probably the biggest), we sat on the outside of the peloton too much. If you pay attention to the aerodynamics, the front of the peloton is breaking the wind to the sides, so the wind could actually be higher in this area at it picks up the speed to go around. We sat in that spot a bit too much.

But these are all mistakes we will carry to the rest of the tour. Live and learn.

Everything else on the team is going well. The guys are happy and we’re having fun, even if most of the hotels the tour is putting us at are no better than youth hostels. I bet the president of ASO isn’t sleeping on the floor tonight. I had to take off the bottom of my bed to make sure I don’t end up with a sore back tomorrow.

Thanks for your support and wish us luck.

As we bikers say: "Rubber side down."

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His Fast Freddie Coffee, the Fast Freddie Foundation, and his new Team Fast Freddie raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.

!http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg|style=padding:10px;|align=left|src=http://www.active.com/images/newsletters/cyclist/TourdeFrance2007/images/fredrod.jpg!With 25km to go, Robbie got caught in a crash, largely due to the narrow roads.

With about 18km, Quickstep decided to take advantage of our problem. They increased the pace in hopes that Robbie would not come back. At that point everyone except Cadel, Horner and myself were sent back to chase and help Robbie.

The team did an incredible job closing the gap. With 9km to go, Robbie made contact with the back of the group. At that point, I was sitting behind the Quickstep lead out waiting for the guys to bring him up.

I drifted back a bit with 4km to go since I noticed that he was not there yet. With about 3km to go Robbie was on my wheel. We started our way up the group. We moved to the right in hopes of a better place to pass.

Robbie passed me to take advantage of an opening. At that moment, my teammate Leif Hoste was behind us and he yelled at me to let him pass through as well. Seeing that he was part of the lead out team, I gave way to him in hopes of putting all three of us in a good place for a strong lead out.

At that moment, we entered a technical and dangerous part of the course and Leif lost contact with Robbie.

Robbie found the sweet spot in all of the mess and was able to make some big passes with little effort.

I told Leif we had to go full gas or we would not make it for the lead out. He did a good job passing, but we came a bit short into the last corner and had to break before we made contact with Robbie.

I was within the first 20 guys and was able to see Robbie sitting well within the first 10. I also noticed no one had control of the lead out and the speed was low, which would favor Robbie's quickness.

I should point out that the rest of the top sprinters favor fast sprints. This was a twisty, low-speed sprint, which favors a true, fast-twitch sprinter like Robbie.

At that point, it looked like no one wanted to be the first one to jump, and they all waited. That put Robbie in perfect position to explode out of the pocket and accelerate to top speed before anyone could even get up to speed.

That's why Robbie's speed made such an impact when compared to the others.

We have radios so there's direct access to directors and everyone on the team. So we had full info about what was going on at all times.

We always celebrate with some champagne...and a big cheer that everyone in the restaurant can't hear.

Freddie

Colombian-born Freddie Rodriguez is a professional American road racing cyclist. He is a three-time US national champion and currently races for team Predictor-Lotto. His Fast Freddie Coffee, the [Fast Freddie Foundation|http://www.fastfreddiefoundation.com/], and his new Team Fast Freddie raise funds to support youth cycling in America. Freddie resides in Emeryville, California, and Girona, Spain. Freddie is riding this year's Tour and will give us an insider's perspective on life inside the peloton. He welcomes questions and will try to respond during the Tour.+