Velonew’s Neal Rogers profiles colleague and Boulder neighbor, Will Frischkorn as a talented rider, effective domestique and awesome guy.

From the journal: “…a journalist jokingly called me a ‘fan.’ That’s not something any reporter wants to hear, particularly from another journalist. But I had to concede the point. Monday was one of those days when I threw all journalistic objectivity out the window. I wanted Will to win, because, above all, I know him, and I like him.”

The Charleston Gazette talks to hometown hero Will Frischkorn about his epic breakaway during stage 3 of the 2008 Tour de France.

EuroSport features a shot of Danny Pate finishing up his top performance in the stage 4 time trial of the Tour de France. Danny finished 14th.

Though the heavy favorite for today’s 29.5 km time trial, according to the media at least, is two-time reigning world time trial champ Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss rider sees only one man as a rival:

“The Scottish,” said Cancellara said, referring to David Millar, not the Brave Heart hordes. “Millar is very strong right now. Who else? Name one? Maybe Schumacher on a short course. Evans will be good, but I usually can beat him.” from Andrew Hood’s VeloNews Tour de France Notebook.

GO DAVID!!!

Of course, only time will tell. Along with the Argyle Armada - who of course are all favorites - are listed the possible GC favorites during today’s race against the clock.

***FAN CHALLENGE: Who are your five favorites - listed in finishing order - for today’s individual time trial?????***

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O ITT start times
11:46 Magnus Backstedt #192
12:54 Danny Pate #199
13:30 Ryder Hesjedal #195
13:32 Trent Lowe #196
14:48 Martijn Maaskant #197
15:04 Julian Dean #193
15:50 Fabian Cancellara #013 (CSC)
16:08 Christian Vande Velde #191
16:10 Stefan Schumacher #111 (GST)
16:40 Cadel Evans #001 (SIL)
16:42 David Millar #198
15:50 Alejandro Valverde #031 (GCE)
16:52 Will Frischkorn #194

Writing for Roadcycling.com, Julian Dean writes about the stage 4 individual time trial and surviving Brittany’s not so great weather.

How do the riders prepare for today’s 29.5 km ITT?

Three hours before the start, riders eat breakfast that is high in carbohydrate intake with low glycemic index foods like pasta or rice and oatmeal. The bus and van with equipment leave early to get set up and once there, the bus extends the awning to protect the riders from the elements. Trainers are set up under the awning, the cooler is filled with bottles and placed near the trainers.

The bus will have the following for TT prep:
* Cooler full of bottles of electrolyte mix and water
* Coffee machine to pop out espresso
* Fruit like bananas as quick snack, dried fruit, honey
* CLIF gels and blocks
* Fridge full of water to keep them hydrated

Once the riders arrive they:
* Double check TT helmet to make sure it’s a perfect fit
* Attach number to their speed suit which is basically a tight fitting TT suit
* Have booties/shoe covers to cover shoes
* Gloves without velcro….again lycra tight fit…..to complete the Aero look!

We attach a radio to the helmets of the riders being followed by a team car. Some riders are motivated by time checks that allow them to gauge how fast they need to go to keep momentum and others like to be shouted words of encouragement!

When it’s time to warm up, the riders pull on just the bottom part of the speedsuit (easier to use bathroom), an undershirt, shoes, and shoe covers and theb hit the trainers. Bottles are put on the bikes and a hand towel placed on the handlebars to dry perspiration. Sometimes there’s a little cotton with peppermint to put in the nose for those whose sinus area is blocked to open up the airways. On a really hot day, we would use ice vests to keep body temp down. Today that shouldn’t be necessary.

With 15 minutes to go, the rider towels down, squeezes into the upper half of his speedsuit, puts on the TT helmet and attaches the radio earpiece to the ear with tape. After a quick radio check, the rider throws on a long sleeve jacket, grab his bike and heads to departure. They sign in and have their bike checked to see if it meets weight and saddle position guidelines. Two minutes before the start, we take the extra clothing from the rider, give them a sip of water and perhaps a CLIF gel and they are off…

Pictured above is Dave Zabriskie warming up for the Tour of California time trial in February.

Bicycling.com writer James Startt takes an in-depth look at Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O and the new norm it’s setting for clean cycling.

“After Floyd happened, I could see a clear opportunity to convince people to go ahead,” says Vaughters. “And I said, ‘I am going to take this, because this is what the sport needs’.”

Featured Athlete: Will Frischkorn

When Will finished today, he was tired, but he wasn’t blown. At 5020 Kilojoules, an average power of 274 Watts (303 when pedaling), and less than 30 minutes of zero time, the day was about as good as it gets for a 5 hr day. But, when I went over Will’s numbers with Danny Pate, I was surprised by Danny’s reaction — a quick, “is that all?”

“What do you mean, is that all,” I replied. To which Danny proceeded to point out the obvious – that Will was basically out there the entire day, in really heavy winds, at speeds that kept 175 or so of the best cyclists in the world from catching them. When it comes to numbers and real world experience, there’s no one I trust more than “The Pate” at giving me perspective. He’s been using power and racing for so long now that he’s literally a human calibration rig. So I asked, what he thought Will’s numbers should’ve been for that performance, to which Danny responded, “at least 1500 or 2000 more Kjoules than I did.”

Danny who had been sitting in the pack all day finished the race with a total workload of 3906 Kjoules and an average power of only 211 Watts (265 when pedaling), or 22% less than Will. Not one to discount Danny’s intuition, I immediately began thinking about all of the aero road equipment we’ve unveiled at this year’s Tour. From the new AR Felt, the Oval aero handlebars, and the new Pearl Izumi aero jersey, Will was on some pretty fast equipment today. So to cut to the chase, I went to Will and asked him how fast he thought all that stuff actually was. His immediate response was that he felt he had a 15 to 20 Watt advantage all day. Interestingly, adding 15 to 20 Watts back to Will’s average would’ve made the difference between Danny and Will about 1400 to 1500 Kjoules instead of the 1100 Kjoules that we actually measured.

As unscientific as this comparison is, I’m not that surprised how closely both Danny and Will, independently, agreed on the discrepancy between the actual versus their expected values for the day. While all the credit goes to Will today for a truly incredible and inspiring ride, if I were to trust my rider’s intuition as much as I trust the numbers, then both tell me we had a major aero advantage today. In the end, it’s that combination of heart and innovation that makes this program and our sponsors so great to work with and that will hopefully bring us more days like today.