*Official* 2008 Tour de France Thread

[Craig]

Just found out. **** me such a douche. Credit to Saunier Duval for withdrawing though, after making a mockery of le Tour i don't see how you could stay.

Makes the positions of Liquigas and Barloworld slightly untenable.

They shouldn't have been allowed to race when you look at it that Iban Mayo also was positive for EPO as well. If I was team mate of Ricco and I knew I was clean I would wait to he is out of custody, go to Modena (where Ricco is from) and punch him in the face. Bouyques Telecom's Jerome Pinenu said he would do the same thing.

 

[Matteh]

If i was De La Fuente i've had punched him already.

 

[Neil Pickup]

FFS. The only acronym appropriate.

 

[Burgey]

What I know about cycling can be written on the back of a postage stamp with an 8 inch wide paint brush, but can someone tell me whether, at this stage of events, Evans should be extending his lead rather than keeping it at one second like it's been for the past few days, or is he saving himself for the big climbing stages?

 

[Jamee999]

It's unlikely he'll extend his lead on normal stages, because in mass sprints, everyone in the sprint is given the same time, so provided he's in the main group he'll keep his lead.

 

[Matteh]

Is saving himself for the Alps in a couple of days, will look to either keep up with Frank Schleck or limit his losses so that when there's the time trial (where Evans >>> Schleck) after the mountains he can make it up.

 

[Matteh]

Bunch sprint today, haven't actually seen it so can't report too heavily, but i do know that Cavendish won, becoming the only Britain ever to win 3 stages in the same year at the TdF.
Gamewise, Clapo has a stormer, leaving guess who back at the bottom. Pickup and Moerk's sprinter heavy teams do well again, other moves are Rob overtaking Craig and Geg overtaking Dwyer.

29  (+ 6)  Pickup      (360, +48)
51  (+18)  Mørk        (351, +48)
166 (-25)  Mitchell    (325, +37)
296 (-44)  Bowen       (293, +26)
303 (-62)  Walsh       (290, +21)
362 (+19)  Thomas      (261, +36)
378 (- 9)  Dwyer       (253, +19)
398 (+29)  Clapham     (233, +44)
415 (-16)  Reddlapalli (220, + 5)
416 (+ 6)  Gray        (219, +27)
429 (- 6)  Young       (197, + 6)

Tomorrow's stage is flatish, 3 category 4 climbs to cycle over. Could possibly see a breakaway survive, depends on who goes off down the road really. Odds are, bunch sprint again though.

 

[headhunter]

Dam it! Didn't stay off the bottom long

 

[Burgey]

Thanks for the explanations guys. Appreciate it.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Cav's good, isn't he? Bike lengths in that. Sports Personality of the Year for mine when he adds Olympic medals to this... and he's not on EPO.

As yesterday, Hushovd, Freire, Zabel, Cav score for me. Another 48 points... no chance of the title as Forster and Hunter keep being crap/have lost their teams/have their teams worrying about something else...

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Cav's good, isn't he? Bike lengths in that. Sports Personality of the Year for mine when he adds Olympic medals to this... and he's not on EPO.

Yeah, best sprinter in the world by a distance now. Could go on to better Cipollini.

 

[Matteh]

51  (-22)  Pickup      (408, +48)
58  (- 8)  Mørk        (405, +54)
229 (-63)  Mitchell    (358, +33)
307 (-11)  Bowen       (330, +37)
326 (-23)  Walsh       (319, +29)
339 (+23)  Thomas      (312, +51)
383 (- 5)  Dwyer       (275, +22)
385 (+13)  Clapham     (274, +41)
393 (+23)  Gray        (261, +42)
408 (+ 7)  Reddlapalli (242, +22)
426 (+ 3)  Young       (218, +21)

****ing sprinter stages...

 

[Craig]

Piepoli and Ricco sacked, anybody not surprised, especially Piepoli? As a result Saunier Duval (who had a contract until 2012 or 2013) may now pull out and as a result so many people will lose their jobs, or get a place on another team on lower wages as a result (Credit Agricole and Gerolsteiner are still without a backer for next year). I honestly hope guys like Ricco serve some time in prison to teach them a lesson.

Rant aside, I was speaking to a good contact of mine and he pointed this to Dr Eufemiano Fuentes who has been training several other doctors to develop drugs and ways to get around the tests, and despite what the teams claim, they know exactly what goes on. He also said this is also the case in other sport like tennis (some big names as well), football etc. and yet you do not hear anything about it (only a 1/4 of the athletes were cyclists).

 

[Craig]

Taken from the live coverage from cyclingnews::

Robert Hunter has been doing an online diary on his website, www.robbiehunter.net. He wasn't too happy earlier this week, and is likely to use even stronger words when he learns that the team sponsors are pulling out.

"This whole situation sucks," he wrote. "Some people have obviously not learned that possible jail time is a good enough reason not to dope.. how stupid are these people..

"My own team mate got caught with stuff in his bag besides going positive.. even more dumb. Once again it puts so many families at risk if the whole team closes.. My team mate was the quiet one and never really spoke to anybody so nobody can say too much about him.

"Then you get this idiot Ricco who shoots off his mouth about how good he is and he is the best and has demonstrated it many times, then after years of actually being spoken about how he risks and should not be touched with a smelly stick, he goes positive (about time).

"He needs to be punched in the nose for his arrogance. Just remember how he made so many accusations to Contador in the Giro, meanwhile he is the dirty little snake. I doubt he will ever show his face again in the pro peleton cause nobody likes him, and for sure nobody will miss him.. . i certainly wont..

The worste part is the italian tv were almost sympathizing with this idiot saying shame he is only 25 and its possible to make mistakes.. But when anybody else goes pos they massacare him.. .. Wake up you fools he is a cheat and should be treated like one.. .

And on top of that i wont miss any other idiots who get caught for substances.. .. its gotta end.. .
I cant say i agree with other people who have also gone positive and now act like the mother mary herself preaching to everybody.. .. i say shut up and be thankful you got another chance now twist thats skinny neck back in and shut up..

Ok well to finish off on all of that i gotta say thanks to The ASO for seeing that it was a single event in Team Barloworld and the rest f the team are there breaking our backs every day to do our best and CLEAN.. .. . Also thanks to Barloworld for seeing it for what it was a single event of a stuid fool risking his and others lives but continueing with this fantastic team.
"



Grammar aside, AWTA.

 

[Craig]

Barloworld to end their sponsorship at the end of the Tour. Congratulations Duanes, you ****.

A kneejerk reaction IMO, they get two stage wins and the KOM jersey next year, and now a positive a to a no-name, and they pull out.

 

[Matteh]

36  (+15)  Pickup      (450, +42)
46  (+12)  Mørk        (445, +40)
236 (- 7)  Mitchell    (384, +26)
300 (+ 7)  Bowen       (356, +26)
345 (-19)  Walsh       (328, + 9)
329 (+10)  Thomas      (339, +27)
387 (- 4)  Dwyer       (287, +12)
372 (+13)  Clapham     (300, +26)
389 (+ 4)  Gray        (285, +24)
415 (- 7)  Reddlapalli (245, + 3)
424 (+ 2)  Young       (226, + 8)

Bunch sprint but a hill stops Cav being there, so someone else won a stage...Freire more or less wraps up the Green Jersey. Alps tomorrow...

 

[Neil Pickup]

Hushovd grabbing tenth was sooo important for me there!

 

[Matteh]

Want the Alps so bad, then i'll catch up.

 

[Craig]

Going for Cunego to win tonight.

 

[Matteh]

Frank for mine.