Happy Birthday Oriol!
Do we have enough candles?
Friday, July 13, 2012
Monday, July 09, 2012
Servia Cycles to a Top-Five in Toronto
Following a weekend filled with action (crashes) as the IndyCar Series took to the streets of Toronto, I can’t help but notice the stanch parallels to another athletic spectacle this time of year -- the Tour de France.
Both sports consist of highly trained and disciplined athletes, working in conjunction with their teams as they strive for a podium finish. While IndyCar drivers’ mode of propulsion is a 2.2 liter V6, and cyclists in the TDF are self-propelled, both tend to fail from time to time.
Much is the case this past weekend for the likes of Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe after their motors let go, seemingly without prior indication. Add to that the scores of on-track incidents we saw, and barely half the field made it through the race unscathed. Likewise, the Tour has seen several crashes mid-peloton, on stretches where you would never expect incidents to happen, forcing the early retirement of 20 riders thus far including Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez and American Tom Danielson. In both sports, many of these retirements are marked up to “racing incidents,” though it was these circumstantial happenings that also led to a top-five finish for Oriol Servia and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing on the streets of Toronto.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Both sports consist of highly trained and disciplined athletes, working in conjunction with their teams as they strive for a podium finish. While IndyCar drivers’ mode of propulsion is a 2.2 liter V6, and cyclists in the TDF are self-propelled, both tend to fail from time to time.
Much is the case this past weekend for the likes of Scott Dixon and James Hinchcliffe after their motors let go, seemingly without prior indication. Add to that the scores of on-track incidents we saw, and barely half the field made it through the race unscathed. Likewise, the Tour has seen several crashes mid-peloton, on stretches where you would never expect incidents to happen, forcing the early retirement of 20 riders thus far including Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez and American Tom Danielson. In both sports, many of these retirements are marked up to “racing incidents,” though it was these circumstantial happenings that also led to a top-five finish for Oriol Servia and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing on the streets of Toronto.
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| 2012 Tour de France |
If there’s one thing Servia knows, it is how to race clean. And he certainly demonstrated that again this past weekend, avoiding any on-track incidents despite running mid-pack for the bulk of the race. Much like cycling, many crashes tend to occur mid-field in IndyCar racing, so the best way to keep your nose clean in both sports is to try to run toward the front to avoid getting caught up in the tangle. While Servia himself admit that the Panther/DRR Team didn’t have the speed to be competitive in Sunday’s race, they kept the pit stops clean and rode out the race as their competition was eliminated one by one.
By the drop of the checkered flag (the race once again finished under yellow due to a late-race crash involving several teams), Servia and DRR found themselves cycled all the way up to a fifth-place finish. These unexpected results also allow the team to regain footing in the championship battle, as they currently reside 10th in the standings. Oriol has also accumulated a whopping 98 positions gained thus far in the 2012 season! Servia remarked in the post-race interviews, “I’m so happy to be on TV; it’s just awesome,” poking fun of the fact that much of his success has gone unnoticed this season as the cameras rarely capture the “ghost driver” at work.
The series takes another week off before returning to Edmonton on July 22nd, but in the meantime, head on over to the NBC Sports network and see whether Fabian Cancellara has lost the mayo journ (yellow jersey) for good and how newcomer Peter Sagan fares following three stage wins already this year.
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