Tour de France

[Craig]

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

I know what it is like

 

[Great Birtannia]

How much of a gap is there usually between the teams on a team time trial? Enough theoretically for T-Mobile to have gapped enough to put Kloden ahead of Sastre/Landis and a red hot chance to win the tour? I remember the commentators mentioned that T-Mobile put a team together specifically for that and then lost out when the organisers scratched the stage.

I said Landis had it in the bag the day before he cracked, and then was gone the next day, so I don't think I'll predict anything for tonight

 

[Matteh]

Based on the first time trial, Landis should win the Tour. But it all depends on if he's rested enough after his massive effort the other day. Could very well see a breach of race protocol, with racing on the Champs Elysees if it's close after the TT.....

As for the fantasy thing - Only Greg picked up points because of the breakaway. Indeed only 31 riders in the entire competition picked up points, which saw Greg finishing 11th on the stage

 

[thewizard1o1]

Craig, Mancebo retired afaik.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Well, that was a nice time trial, wasn't it? Fairly decent pictures, too, though I think a couple more checkpoints wouldn't have hurt.

 

[Matteh]

Bit sad to see Pereiro lose out, but he seems happy with 2nd.
Essentially the GC part of the Tour has been about poor tactics regarding breakaways, firstly the 30min breakaway that made Pereiro a contender from nowhere and gave Landis a contender, and then the stage Landis dominated after being effectively out of the running. If the Peleton, or in fact just T-Mobile and Illes Baleares had done enough to close the gap by a couple of minutes, we'd have seen Pereiro win the Tour.

Interesting to see that T-Mobile despite being slated for generally poor tactics throughout, actually went and won the Team competition.

 

[Matteh]

Mathew Mitchell 512 (327)
Haakon Mork 500 (360)
Craig Walsh 490 (384)
Sean Fuller 343 (570)
Greg Thomas 305 (602)

Rankings out of 647.
The leader has 722 points.

With the final stage tomorrow, it should be a sprint finish on the Champs Elysses. Hopefully i'll just about cling on to 1st, but it's been a great effort by Haakon and Craig to close the gap, which was huge at one point.
Last year, i finished 556th out of 904 with 422 points, nice to see an improvement

 

[Craig]

Well 3 out of my 4 predications were correct, so I am happy especially that Mancebo, Sevilla, Ullrich, Basso, Vino and the Astana team were not allowed to take part.

It is a funny story about Landis, is that after his 23rd position with US Postal in the 2004 Tour, Lance Armstrong really wanted him to stay and when Landis left for Phonak, Armstrong was absolutely furious about it, and when they next raced each other in the Tour of Georgia they had a confrontation on the stage to Brasstown Bald (America's equvialant [sic] to l'Alpe d'Huez) where they had words and started racing against each other, until Armstrong got him on the line to which Armstrong pointed at the clock in way to mean "up yours" to Landis.

Gradually they spoke and everything is ok between them, and there was a rumour that Landis was to go back to Discovery next year (well he can't because of his operation) but it was quickly denied by Johan Bruyneel (there has been stories of Basso to leave CSC and ride for Bruyneel but that has been denied by Bjarne Riis), and how he has a Tour de France title. Plenty of riders have left Postal/Discovery and have had some success (Boonen winning the Worlds, Flanders, Roubaix etc.), Roberto Heras (one Vuelta before he lost one to one to a positive drugs test), Tyler Hamilton (Liege-Bastogone-Liege, one Tour stage win, a few other high profile wins before he also tested positive to blood doping), but none Landis has outshone them all. For those who are unaware Boonen rode as a first year professional (called a neo-pro) in 2002 but jumped across to Quick Step to achieve other goals, and Hamilton left at the end of 2001.

I'm happy for Kloden to get third, I kind of have to since I have a Giant bike myself and under the circumstances they went through at the start, three stage wins, the team classification they have a very good Tour. And one also has to give credit to Rogers and Evans. As for tonight I'm banking for Robbie McEwen to win, but I would kind of like old Erik Zabel to get stage win.

 

[Matteh]

So then, the end of the Tour. Well done to Landis, McEwen, Rasmussen and Cunego.

The fantasy competition finished like this:

Mathew Mitchell 563 (312)
Haakon Mork 521 (396)
Craig Walsh 505 (430)
Sean Fuller 360 (572)
Greg Thomas 347 (583)

We've seen some very high finishes on the stages from Haakon and Craig in the mountains mostly and despite nearly closing down on my lead, I just about hung on to win

 

[Craig]

My cause wasn't helped my me not replacing Ullrich, Basso, Mancebo, and Vinokourov. Good win for Thor Hushovd, I would never have expected him to win by such a margin in a bunch sprint, especially over McEwen. I suppose the difference in Landis winning the Tour over Armstrong is that he did a different way to Lance, where Landis went on a massive solo attack after losing so much the time before on the day before to get the time back and now to win the race. Armstrong would never make such a break, or would have allowed one to get away (unless it was somebody like Rasmussen) as his team mates would have chased him down and I guess that was T-Mobile's mistake in not helping Caisse d'Epargne chase him down, or not to let him gain too much time.

But anyway congratulations to Landis, that was deserved, Cunego who I think is a very very good chance of winning the Tour one day, in fact I will go as far to say that he will win it one day, while I'm pleased for McEwen (hard not to be ) and Rasmussen.

Deserving winner: 10/10, go on a 100+ break the day after losing ten minutes in which he risked so much, deserves to win the race.

Suspense: 10/10, couldn't predict wjat would happen next. People expected Dessel to drop away he didn't, Fothen to win the BYR but he cracked even though he is a better TT then Cunego, and what about Periero? It was certaintly with plenty of twists and turns.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Deserving winner: 10/10, go on a 100+ break the day after losing ten minutes in which he risked so much, deserves to win the race.

Except he's now had a positive test for testosterone. Still waiting on the B sample, but that's pretty sad nevertheless

 

[howardj]

Yeah I think the whole sport's credibility is definitely in tatters, if it wasn't already.

Story here.

 

[Steulen]

This is a difficult one. Testosterone is a weird drug to get caught on. Also, there is scientific evidence that high-intensity endurance exercise messes with the testosterone / epitestosterone ratio (which is what is used to indicate testosterone use). Dutch rider Gert-Jan Theunisse tested positive for testosterone based on that ratio and had a decade-long court battle because of it. This will get really nasty.

 

[Matteh]

Floyd Landis = Jerk

If there's suspicion it means that something's amiss.

The L'Equipe's attacks on Lance Armstrong i can see as an attempt to reduce someone who has enjoyed a lot of success and their evidence is a 7 year old B sample...

But with Landis, there's no need for that to happen. At least we now know how he managed to zoom off with 150km to go and last.

 

[Craig]

We will have to wait until the B test and see what will happen then. If the B test is positive, then he will be stripped off his title, sacked instantly by Phonak and cop a four year ban (he will get the mandatory two year ban, and then he won't be able to sign for another ProTour team for another two years, which makes it effectively a four year ban although he could technically sign for a smaller non-ProTour team). I can not believe this, but we will have to wait, I hope his B test is negative.

 

[Craig]

Except he's now had a positive test for testosterone. Still waiting on the B sample, but that's pretty sad nevertheless

Well I should add I can't predict the future.

 

[Craig]

Yeah I think the whole sport's credibility is definitely in tatters, if it wasn't already.

Story here.

You can say that about almost everyother sport, from athletics, weightlifiting, skiing, cross-country skiing etc. because of the 200 names listed recently in the Fuentes raid, 56 were cyclists, and the other 144 athletes were from other sports, yet cycling always get named as the scapegoat.

 

[Craig]

This is a difficult one. Testosterone is a weird drug to get caught on. Also, there is scientific evidence that high-intensity endurance exercise messes with the testosterone / epitestosterone ratio (which is what is used to indicate testosterone use). Dutch rider Gert-Jan Theunisse tested positive for testosterone based on that ratio and had a decade-long court battle because of it. This will get really nasty.

yeah, to quote the cyclingnews.com website:

" But even if the B sample confirms the A result, Landis is not necessarily guilty of taking an illegal performance enhancing drug to boost his testosterone. Some riders can prove that they have an elevated Testosterone/Epitestosterone (T:E) level, if they undergo an endocrine test performed by a credible doctor. Landis said he will use Spanish doctor Luis Hernández, who has helped other riders prove a high T:E count. "In hundreds of cases, no one's ever lost one," Landis told SI."

Anyway if he was deemed positive, he could very well go running to the CAS in Switzerland and try and get the whole thing appealed, but that is pretty risky as once they make the decision, it is final, no more appeals can be made.

 

[Kweek]

if i'd do a attack like that i'd have testosteron going through my body..!

 

[BoyBrumby]

You can say that about almost everyother sport, from athletics, weightlifiting, skiing, cross-country skiing etc. because of the 200 names listed recently in the Fuentes raid, 56 were cyclists, and the other 144 athletes were from other sports, yet cycling always get named as the scapegoat.

Meanwhile, on the "it's not just cycling, honest" front, Justin Gaitlin faces a life ban after testing positive for testosterone. From the beeb:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/5228060.stm

All the tiresome, disingenuous denials annoy me. I'd love a drugs cheat, just once, when he (or she) was pinged to say "it's a fair cop, guv".