Tour de France
 

Yesterday saw the virtual elimination of Mayo as an overall contender. He crashed near the front of the peloton with a number of riders. Immediately the Euskaltel-Euskadi team dedicated themselves to trying to pace Mayo back to the main group.

News of Mayo’s fall quickly reached the main contenders and US Postal, T-Mobile and Phonak pushed the pace at the front in the style of a team time trial. (We’ve seen this before. In 1999 after the causeway debacle, Zulle was left 6 mins behind the peloton, which was frantically driven by US Postal and Once.)

Mike Smith, the stupid Eurosport commentator, couldn’t understand why the Euskaltels couldn’t catch the peloton. What a moron.

Mayo finished almost 4 mins down and with his team tired and despondent, he is likely to lose another 5 mins in today’s team time trial.

I’m disappointed that one of the main races favourites is out of contention before they’ve even seen a mountain.

I just needed that rant.

EDIT: The Euskaltels had a good team time trial and with the new system to limit losses of teams, they only lost 1min 20secs, so all is not lost. We’ll see what happens in the hills.

Does Vuitton have anything to do with the Tour de France or is it just the Vuitton cup?

not really following it that intensly yet. But I will when they hit the mountains.
I'm hoping either Armstrong or Hamilton will win, and that Virenque will the dotted jersey this year.

I’ve no idea, sorry.


Yanks always have a hard luck story… I had cancer … I rode last year’s tour with a broken collarbone … I got shot in the back. They make me sick.

I’d like to see Mayo win, but any European would be OK.

wtf?? :none: you may not like them, but damn the argument is bad for not doing so. :bum:

Vuitton has nothing to do with the Tour de France. :)
Vuitton is a luxury brand and they sponsor luxury events, the Tour de France is a popular event and Vuitton would never come near it. The people who follow the Tour de France are not exactly the kind of people who buy Vuitton products.


I hope someone else than Armstrong is going to win this year, that would be the sixth time for him and he would become the only one to have won six times, and i don't like that. Plus, i would prefer some diversity, those past years watching the Tour de France has been like watching a Formula 1 grand prix, you know who's going to win before it starts, and that's annoying. :rolleyes:

OK, so I admit I don’t like them anyway, but having the commentators go on about how heroic they are, every ten seconds, doesn’t help.


Last year things did rather fall into place for Armstrong. Beloki crashed heavily while looking a possible winner and warm dry weather for the final Time Trial would have made things interesting.

All teams knew the new rules governing the Team Time Trial before this year’s tour, but that didn’t stop Bruyneel and Armstrong squealing like stuck pigs, after the event.

EDIT 16/07/04.
First mountain top finish. Mayo lost another minute and Ullrich lost two and a half minutes to Armstrong. Basso looked strong winning the stage. Let’s hope for some hot sunny weather, for the rest of the tour.

EDIT 17/07/04 A bad day in the hills.
Zubeldia, Hamilton and Menchov abandoned, suffering from the effects of previous crashes.
Mayo had a total disaster, trying to abandon at one point, he was only kept going by the encouragement of team mates and is now 45 minutes down overall, out of contention.
Losing another 2½ minutes, Ullrich is nearly seven minutes down now, on today’s stage winner, Armstrong.
The CSC rider Basso seems the only realistic hope of stopping Armstrong winning his sixth tour.

EDIT 20/07/04 Not a good day.
Mayo failed to start this morning.
A good attack by Ullrich on the first category climb was neutralised by the CSCs.
Basso just sat in the main group until the sprint for the line, where Armstrong beat him.
The way commentator Mike Smith is raving on, my TV is in serious danger of getting a brick thrown through the screen.

Hopefully Armstrong will have fifteen punctures, in tomorrow’s individual time trial up L’Alpe d’Huez.

EDIT 21/07/04 A truly awful day.
The tour just went right down the pan. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong today and to make matters worse, my TV set didn’t survive the stage. Now I’m reduced to watching an old TV with messed up colours and unstable picture.

We’ll see what happens in the mountains tomorrow, but I don’t hold out much hope.

EDIT 22/07/04 T-Mobile fail.
Ullrich and Kloden just sat in the main group, refusing to attack on the final climb and although Kloden went for home at the 1Km to go kite, his attack was not committed and he was caught on the line.

Anyway, I hope McEwan keeps his Green jersey tomorrow and wins in Paris on Sunday.

EDIT 24/07/04
McEwan lost the sprint for seventh place to Hushovd. He still has an eleven point lead, but he needs to be watchful at the intermediate sprints and finish in the top four in Paris tomorrow.

EDIT 24/07/04(2)
Basso lost his second place in the time trial.

EDIT 25/07/04
McEwan won the Green jersey which is about the only good thing to come out of this tour.
It would have been OK with me, if Indurain had won ten tours, but since his last win in 1995, the tour has been won by riders I disliked. I have to say my opinion of Ullrich changed though, seeing the way he battled with Pantani after taking a beating in the mountains.

One disappointing year following another hasn’t put me off the tour. The scenic views, the daily battles to win stages and the occasional acceptable winner of the Green jersey, keep me hooked.


PS . I’m amazed at the response to this thread. Who’d have thought cycling was so popular?

Offtop:
Does anyone living in East Anglia, have a decent TV going cheap?

One week to go to the start of the 2005 tour. The excitement is building. I think it’s going to be good.

btw. I could not find a way to change the title of the thread to read simply – Tour de France. If a mod could do it that would be great.

As long as Armstrong doesn't win, all is good. :done:

Wasn't Armstrong supposed to have retired from the Tour de France? Not that I'm following the event but you know :lalala:

The tour has not gone very well so far, but at least we had a laugh today.

We’ll see what happens when they hit the hills.

I really can't understand what people find in things like the Tour de France ( of F1 for that matter ). Maybe my mind is not organised enough in circlular motions to appreciate the perplexities and complexities of the "sport". All I know is that it feautures some small skinny guys wearing a saucepan on the heads and having to complete some ridiculously tough route, whereby half of them will go to the hospital from exhaustion or dehydration.


WOW I'm "watching" the highlights now and I'm having a tremendous laugh!

yeah :rolleyes:

But Le Triplettes De Bellevile, that was really good. Maybe even better than the Tour de France ;)

Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Lance is in the overall lead by 53 seconds. and there was a huge spill today..it was huuge, so prob everyone got the same time who fell.

:done: I am with you on this, spy

:lol: :laugh: :lol:

Brilliant laugh!

Standings of main contenders with times back from yellow –

Vinokourov - 1:02
Basso - 1:26
Ullrich - 1:36
Kloden - 1:50
Karpets - 2:13
Beloki - 2:43
Valverde - 3:24
Evans - 3.29
Rogers - 4:11
Mayo - 5:48

I wouldn’t mind seeing any of these win the tour, but I find it hard to support Basso because he rides for Riis.

At least Armstrong lost the yellow jersey today, but he'll probably get it back when they hit the Alps in 2 days, unless he has a major blackout like what happened to Indurain in his last tour.

A bad day in the hills.
 

I was hoping Evans would win today’s stage, but he couldn’t handle it when the paced was stepped up.
Standings of main contenders with times back from yellow –

Basso – 2:40
Valverde – 3:16
Ullrich – 4:02
Kloden – 4:16
Evans – 5:55

Alps again tomorrow. Maybe it will be a better day.

Lance Armstrong is back in the leaders yellow jersey after stage 10, Haku. Oh, and Evgeni Petrov has been thrown out after failing a blood test.

Edited because my poor brain is melting in this heat :eek: .

Bad day as Valverde retires with an injured knee. The Lottos did a lot of work for McEwan, but hopefully Evans was not too heavily involved. I think he will win in the mountains tomorrow.

EDIT 16/07/05
Evans looked good to the foot of the final climb, but then he just ran out of petrol.

Armostrong unbeatable once again this year. I really think this guy is not human. The scientists possibly took out all of his insides while he had his last cancer surgery and replaced it with all sorts of sensitive electronics. Kind of like the $6 million man.

He probably has an aluminum Fujists-Siemens heart beating inside his chest, Sony artificial muscle fibres and all sorts of diodes and wiring sticking out of his crotch hand built by General Electric - a command centre to control his basic life functions.

I think the CSCs will attack today. Basso’s last real chance of yellow. Although it sticks in my throat, I’ll say – good luck Riis.

freddie - lance armstrong's VO2 is around 80. that is just good genes, i mean, you can't get something like that. in that sense, he is abnormally strong.

Now the football has gone down the pan it’s time to pick the winner of this years tour.

I pick Valverde if he doesn’t get thrown out and there is someone for him to ride against.

The map of this year's tour. :) They'll be riding east to west through Normandy for 2 days. :D

the beginning of the Tour de France is in Strasbourg : the city where my brother live
14th July in Beziers : I'll there just for the week end
and finishing in Paris where my sister live

I may be see all my family this month lol

I wonder how many cyclists will be there due to the problem of doping
:coctail: * here, you're "pot belge" honey *

Hushovd wins the prologue. A good start for Valverde in fifth. Evans put in a good ride too.

I think McEwan or Boonen will get the Yellow tomorrow.

Edit: 02/07/06.
Hushovd’s arm is badly gashed by hitting an object held by the crowd, while sprinting for the line close to the barriers. Hopefully he will be able to continue his defence of the Green Jersey.

Casper won the stage from McEwan.

T. Hushovd is "maillot jaune", so unlucky for the sprint he's taking one foot off
so Mc Ewan won this time

Major disaster. Valverde has crashed out of the tour. I am gutted.
With Di Luca’s withdrawal through illness before stage 2 this tour is losing all it’s favourites for the overall win.

Edit: 05/07/06.
Another stage won for McEwan today.

I’ve revised my prediction for overall winner:
1. Evans.
2. Simoni.
3. Moreau.

Wooo, the Tour is in Normandy today, they were only a few kms south of Rouen half an hour ago. :D

Edit:
Freire won today's stage in Caen with a powerful sprint, no change for the yellow jersey. :)

Time trial today.
Simoni has a bad ride. He’ll have to do something pretty amazing to get back in contention.
Evans and Moreau put in solid performances. All is still to play for when they hit the hills.

Very interesting stage today, the first one with difficult mountain, we'll see who the strongest ones are. First time in 5 years that the race is really open since the bionic man is no longer there.

Simoni out of contention for the overall after losing chunks of time on the last climb. Moreau had a bad day too. Evans did OK although he was distanced near the top of the final climb. Rasmussen sacrificed his chance to win the stage and bag some mountains jersey points, by pacing the lead group for about 15kms to the base of the last mountain. His team-mate Menchov won the stage.

Edit: 15/07/06
These three-week stage races make for intriguing viewing. The motives of the riders are so complex and varied. Today’s stage saw a five rider breakaway succeeding. The field trailed in 30 minutes down. Sport at it’s best.

I have the Tour on TV now, it's the first stage in the Alps and an extremely difficult one, only the best riders will make it today.

When Evans got dropped half way up L’Alpe d’Huez I thought today’s stage was going to be a complete disaster. The leaders did not really turn up the wick though and Evans remains in touch for the overall. Moreau is out of contention after losing more time today. The next two days should be good.

Great win for Rasmussen today, a long solitary run in a very difficult stage, impressive.

Pereiro takes the yellow jersey today, it was obviously a big mistake to let him take 30 minutes in stage 13, his opponents thought he was finished and no longer a threat, he showed them today how mistaken they were.

McEwan should show Evans his green jersey and tell him – “You’re the one with the one on his back and I’m the one winning a jersey for the team. Stop cruising in the comfort zone and act like a team leader.”

Edit: 20/07/06
Riders still seem to by trying to give the tour away. It was be nice to Phonak day, today.

I can’t complain at Evans today. He tried he best, but he wasn’t good enough.

For the first time in the history of the Tour de France (and it has existed for over a century), the 3 top riders are within 1 minute from each other before today's last time-trial stage, everything is going to be decided in today's stage. So much more interesting than the 6 previous years where we knew from day 1 that Armstrong would win the race. :D This time we still have at least 3 potential winners in the last stage (last before tomorrow's arrival in Paris of course).

Another year when the rider I dislike most wins the race. I’m beyond the TV smashing stage now. I just keep saying it will be better next year. Hopefully Valverde will complete the tour in 2007 and Di Luca’s form will return too.

The Tour de France 2007 has been revealed, it'll go from London to Paris. :D