Tour de France

[Craig]

Does Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears count as a French team since the main sponsor is a French bank? Well if you don't have a Frenchman capable of winning the overall, I guess somebody on a French team is the next best thing.

But what a stage, who would have expected Landis to lose so much time and virtually lose the race there and then. But then who would think Pereiro would be leading the race and a good chance of winning. I was confused on why T-Mobile would chase the break Rogers was in when Menchov attacked, when it was not in their interest to chase it when Landis should of been doing the work to catch them. They have some odd tatics T-Mobile.

Anybody can win now, and I'm not game to say who. On the other hand I'm shocked a climber like Jose Rujano would be so far and was dropped by sprinter's group. Either something is wrong with him physically or he struggling with riding the Tour.

 

[thewizard1o1]

True. He was a champion at eliminating risk, which definitely played a big part in him winning all those TdF's. Riding near the front of the peloton, pre-riding all mountain stages more than once, etc. And then of course he managed to avoid a career-threatening Beloki fall by going off-road...amazing skill.

Not forgetting when he caught that lady's handbag and Mayo fell over the top of him as well....

 

[Craig]

It was a bag that belonged to a small child

 

[Craig]

Anyway my tips:

Overall: 1) I. Basso 2) J. Ullrich 3) F. Mancebo

Green Jersey: R. McEwen

Mountains: Michael Rasmussen, but Cadel Evans pushing him strongly

Best Young Rider: Damiano Cunego

Looks like Rasmussen will get that one, as will McEwen (unless he doesn't finish for some reason), and Cunego is now just over 2min behind in the Best Young Rider Competition, and can still win that, but the final TT will probably count against him.

 

[thewizard1o1]

Does Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears count as a French team since the main sponsor is a French bank? Well if you don't have a Frenchman capable of winning the overall, I guess somebody on a French team is the next best thing.

Its the old Banesto (sp?) team that Indurain rode for...

But what a stage, who would have expected Landis to lose so much time and virtually lose the race there and then. But then who would think Pereiro would be leading the race and a good chance of winning. I was confused on why T-Mobile would chase the break Rogers was in when Menchov attacked, when it was not in their interest to chase it when Landis should of been doing the work to catch them. They have some odd tatics T-Mobile.

T-Mobile are just a crazy bunch. remember last year when vino attacked on one stage and Klodi pulled Ullrich and Armstrong up to vino again

Anybody can win now, and I'm not game to say who. On the other hand I'm shocked a climber like Jose Rujano would be so far and was dropped by sprinter's group. Either something is wrong with him physically or he struggling with riding the Tour.

RE: Rujano...the man man suffered from a severe toe infection that started infecting other parts of his body (apparently he had a swelling the size of a tennisball in his inner thighs or something) and had to take antibiotics during most of the Tour. Also, part of his foot around the toe turned 'black', beginnings of gangreen or something. No wonder he had a bad Tour really.

 

[Craig]

Yeah iread about 1/2 an hour ago, turns out he has abandoned anyway. He was a no show at the start line. He is supposed to ride the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) anyway, so we will see.

 

[Craig]

T-Mobile are just a crazy bunch. remember last year when vino attacked on one stage and Klodi pulled Ullrich and Armstrong up to vino again

Foreign riders never seem to work out at T-Mobile, there have some exceptions of course with the likes of Rogers (so far) and Honchar (Or Gonchar). Look at Cadel Evans (broke his collarbone 3x in 2003 and his non selection for the 2004 Tour), Paolo Savoldelli (TBF he was about as injury prone as Simon Jones has been his whole career), Santiago Botero (hmm maybe not now), and the signings appeared at the start of the year to be completely random - like Honchar, Mazzoleni etc. although they have been better then that in all fairness.

I'm not sure what it is, but I guess the old East German thing might be something to do with it ...

 

[Steulen]

Over the last week, I've lost all respect for Floyd Landis. I still think he's a nice, sympathetic bloke, but as a rider he's just an accountant on a bike...no risk, no ambition, just pedal along and sneak a win. I hope he redeems himself by going all out offensive on the Col des Saisies today.

Good one Floyd. Brave man.

 

[Pratters]

Landis..

 

[Matteh]

was confused on why T-Mobile would chase the break Rogers was in when Menchov attacked, when it was not in their interest to chase it when Landis should of been doing the work to catch them. They have some odd tatics T-Mobile.

Allegedly it was because they wanted Kloeden in a better position and so were working to get him up.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Good one Floyd. Brave man.

I trust he's got your respect back now? Wow...

 

[Steulen]

I trust he's got your respect back now? Wow...

If only everyone did what I told them to do on some random Web forum .

Definitely got my respect back. I hope he wins it now.

 

[Neil Pickup]

In slightly unrelated news, today I went on a 35km ride for a slightly random set of reasons, and by the end of it was utterly, mentally and physically drained. A bit of map looking later revealed that it contained what were probably equivalent to a category 4 and a category 3 [2km @ 8-9%] climb (I had to stop twice on the 3). It took me two hours.

My respect for guys who can do six times the distance at twice the speed and climb higher, further and longer has gone up exponentially. It's unreal.

 

[Matteh]

Mathew Mitchell 492 (331)
Haakon Mork 462 (402)
Craig Walsh 457 (413)
Sean Fuller 320 (571)
Greg Thomas 287 (594)

Looks like i'm being caught up....although with the mountain stages now over, and only 3 stages left i should hang on as leader til the end. Craig showing the dominance of his team in the mountains by coming 10th in yesterday's stage and 14th today.

 

[Matteh]

My respect for guys who can do six times the distance at twice the speed and climb higher, further and longer has gone up exponentially. It's unreal.

It does look deceptively easy whilst sat watching it on a tv but when you actually go out and try it, you realise how much these guys put in. There's a hill where i live and it must only be 1km in length but it's stupidly steep. I must have tried getting up it in one go at least 25 times and have only ever done it once. For these guys to go 200km in a day for a start is impressive, to then climb over mountain ranges makes an absolute mockery of any hills we struggle up and commands respect.

 

[Craig]

What sort of bike are you riding? A road bike or a mountain bike?

What a break by Landis, over 150 km on the front, and a favourite for the overall, you don't see that anymore, until now. I mean when the last time you would see such a thing? Never by Lance Armstrong. It was an attack you would have seen from the likes Coppi, Merckx, Hinualt and other great riders. That was simply impressive.

Landis now has a good chance of winning of what appears to be potentially his last stage race in his professional career (he is due for a hip replacement at the end of the race).

 

[Chubb]

Landis deserves to win after that. It was brilliant. But the other teams should have controlled it more and they've made a big blunder.

 

[Matteh]

What sort of bike are you riding? A road bike or a mountain bike?

Roadbike - did about 20 miles today, most of which was into the wind and picked up a puncture on my back tyre.

 

[FRAZ]

OMG!!!!! these human powered machines do look cute
http://www.recumbents.com/WISIL/speedruns2000/worlds-fastest-bicycle-2000.htm

 

[Craig]

Sevilla and Ullrich were sacked by T-Mobile yeasterday for their alleged involvement in the Spanish doping scandal. Both were sent faxs announcing that their contracts were terminated, but Ullrich who continues to protest his innocence his considering his options. Personally I think he should take a DNA test, we will either know he was involved or not. No word about Sevilla or what has happened with Mancebo, so they must of been involved somehow. We will see.

Decisive TT tonight, I can't wait.