Tour de France 2009

[NZTailender]

Discussion for this years tour.

Anyone else going to do the TdF game again?: Internet Tour de France Game 2009

My team (really shows how much I know about it, picking only the names I know )

1. S. O'Grady
2. C. Evans
3. L. Leipheimer
4. A. Contador
5. L. Armstrong
6. T. Hushovd
7. F. Sabatini
8. J. Voigt
9. F. Cancellara
10. C. Sastre
11. T. Voeckler
12. D. Millar
13. G. Hincapie
14. M. Cavendish
15. O. Pereiro
16. V. Nibali
17. A. Kuschynski
18. D. Menchov
19. M. Lloyd
20. R. Gesink

 

[Jakester1288]

Will be watching a little bit just to cheer on Cadel Evens. Other than that I won't be watching unless I'm bored and the Ashes isn't on.

 

[Craig]

Discussion for this years tour.

Anyone else going to do the TdF game again?: Internet Tour de France Game 2009

My team (really shows how much I know about it, picking only the names I know )

1. S. O'Grady
2. C. Evans
3. L. Leipheimer
4. A. Contador
5. L. Armstrong
6. T. Hushovd
7. F. Sabatini
8. J. Voigt
9. F. Cancellara
10. C. Sastre
11. T. Voeckler
12. D. Millar
13. G. Hincapie
14. M. Cavendish
15. O. Pereiro
16. V. Nibali
17. A. Kuschynski
18. D. Menchov
19. M. Lloyd
20. R. Gesink

Yeah I'll be in., I will do it in the next few days.

All we would have needed is to have Barloworld and their South Africans (plus their white Kenyan/South African/Brit) and somebody from South America and we would of had riders from every land continent take part (provisional start list).

For the benefit of BB we have a Scotsman (David Millar although he was born in Malta), an Englishman (Brad Wiggansborn in Ghent and an Australian dad), a Brummie turned Irishman (Dan Martin of the Garmin team, his cousin is Nicolas Roche of AG2r and his uncle is the great Stephen Roche) and another Brit who was born in Finland (Charly Wegelius). And last but not least we have the man from the Isle of Mann - Mark Cavendish who won 4 stages last year and has 11 wins this year thus far (IIRC).

We have a couple of riders from Japan and New Zealand as well.

 

[alternative]

In like last time.

 

[Craig]

Yeah I'll be in., I will do it in the next few days.

All we would have needed is to have Barloworld and their South Africans (plus their white Kenyan/South African/Brit) and somebody from South America and we would of had riders from every land continent take part (provisional start list).

For the benefit of BB we have a Scotsman (David Millar although he was born in Malta), an Englishman (Brad Wiggansborn in Ghent and an Australian dad), a Brummie turned Irishman (Dan Martin of the Garmin team, his cousin is Nicolas Roche of AG2r and his uncle is the great Stephen Roche) and another Brit who was born in Finland (Charly Wegelius). And last but not least we have the man from the Isle of Mann - Mark Cavendish who won 4 stages last year and has 11 wins this year thus far (IIRC).

We have a couple of riders from Japan and New Zealand as well.

Won't happen, out with a knee injury and is replaced by Martijn Maaskant.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Least excited I've been for years, I must admit.

Will enter a team of sprinters as usual tho.

 

[Jamee999]

A. Contador
D. Menchov
C. Sastre
A. Schleck
F. Schleck
M. Cavendish
C. Evans
S. O'Grady
O. Freire
F. Cancellara
T. Hushovd
L. Leipheimer
Y. Popovych
L. Armstrong
J. Vansummeren

J. Voigt
B. Wiggins
D. Millar
S. Clement
C. Vande Velde

 

[Magrat Garlick]

J. Vansummeren

not sure you get 1 point for picking the lanterne rouge

 

[Craig]

In.

Nice back drop BTW, too bad I don't have $6m (AUS) to buy a two bedroom apartment there.

 

[Chubb]

In.

Nice back drop BTW, too bad I don't have $6m (AUS) to buy a two bedroom apartment there.

Honestly, I think Monaco is an overrated, seedy, overpriced dump. It doesn't even look particularly nice on TV, IMO. Have you been there?

I like the route this year- starting in the south and hitting the Pyrenees fairly quickly is nice change to the usual.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Not sure whether using basically no climbs in the Pyrenees is a great idea, though.

XV (Hushovd and Boonen the props)

1. A. Contador
2. C. Evans
3. M. Cavendish
4. T. Hushovd
5. T. Farrar
6. O. Freire
7. C. Sastre
8. T. Boonen
9. A. Schleck
10. D. Bennati
11. D. Menchov
12. L. Armstrong
13. R. Kreuziger
14. G. Ciolek
15. R. Feillu

 

[PhoenixFire]

Is this doubling up as a discussion thread as well?

So pleased for Cavo, the bloke is such a champ. The stage win was never in doubt after there was that mini crash towards the end, nobody was going to catch him.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Is this doubling up as a discussion thread as well?

So pleased for Cavo, the bloke is such a champ. The stage win was never in doubt after there was that mini crash towards the end, nobody was going to catch him.

Yeah, just cruised home in the end. The crash obviously took out pretty much all the sprinters bar Ciolek though. Apparently there was a bit of a scuffle towards the end as well - some Dutch domestique barged inot Cavendish, who made it clear he didn't like it.

I reckon Cancellara has an outside shot this year, with the lack of real height in the Pyranees and then a huge effort up the Ventoux.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Can't quite look past Contador for the time being, though I reckon Leipheimer has a pretty good outside chance. Can't wait till the Ventoux stage, should be an absolute ripper.

Anyone else think that Shaun Kelly is deadset the worst commentator going? You can barely understand his extremely boring voice and I seriously can't remember the last time that he said something insightful or interesting, espeically considering he has ridden the tour several times. Reckon the rest of them are awesome though.

 

[Craig]

Honestly, I think Monaco is an overrated, seedy, overpriced dump. It doesn't even look particularly nice on TV, IMO. Have you been there?

I like the route this year- starting in the south and hitting the Pyrenees fairly quickly is nice change to the usual.

The closest I have been to Monaco in France is Toulouse, so no.

Can't quite look past Contador for the time being, though I reckon Leipheimer has a pretty good outside chance. Can't wait till the Ventoux stage, should be an absolute ripper.

Anyone else think that Shaun Kelly is deadset the worst commentator going? You can barely understand his extremely boring voice and I seriously can't remember the last time that he said something insightful or interesting, espeically considering he has ridden the tour several times. Reckon the rest of them are awesome though.

We get two Brits in Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen and it is basically a Lance Armstrong love-in. Which is fine, but eventually you want to grab the bucket.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Sean Kelly annoyingly starts every sentence "Well, yes, certainly..." very irritating. The main bloke is gun, but Kelly is dire.

Cavendish storming through again. He should be knighted, not Chris Hoy, two gold medals in a minority sport that only we seem to take seriously pales in comparison with Cav's achievements on the road.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Cav is currently on another level to the rest of the sprinters; stunning to behold and great to see the other Brits lifting it - if the aim of a Road Team GB to challenge the GC is to be realised then these guys have to keep on lifting it.

With the peloton splitting, barely anyone scored with more than two riders. I have Cavendish and Hushovd as 1 and 2 - hence I am in a group of 94 people in 62nd place. I will be hoping to match last year's exploits where I stood in the dizzy heights of 4th place at one point before falling out the top 100 by the end...

62 Pickup (35)
242 Walsh (30)
369 Mork (25)
423 Gray (21)
441 Thomas (19)
475 Mitchell (15)
484 Reddlapalli (14)

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Cavendish storming through again. He should be knighted, not Chris Hoy, two gold medals in a minority sport that only we seem to take seriously pales in comparison with Cav's achievements on the road.

why not both?

IIRC one of Eddy Merckx' greatest achievements - the one hour world record - came on the velodrome.

But yeah, Cav is on another planet. Hoping he'll wimp out of last-day Ventoux though.

 

[Craig]

Armstrong took a nice advantage to gain time over his main rival

 

[Redbacks]

Wow, Cavendish is an amazing sprinter! He missed the Hill last tour to prepare for the Olympics so it will be interesting to see if he has the tank to complete the tour this time.