Millar gone too early

Feiuli? (sp)

oooooohhhh

Greipal?

Bugger, Greipel got it from Cav. 🙁

come on STW sick of pressing F5
WTF is going on

won by a good wheel length, or about 0.00001s

Greipel went further too by taking the outside line round the last corner.

OMG Cav will be rather pissed at that!

That’s the first time I’ve seen Cav lose a sprint. Good effort though, the other chap was in a much better position.

what hapened did he just go faster or did Cav make an error /get nudged again?

Just went faster

Cav just ran out of lead-out men on that run in, HTC were under a lot of pressure from early on and just ran out of people to lead him out. Cav was forced to go about 10m too early, Greipel just came off his wheel and got the sprint by a wheel.

far better position – using cav for your leadout man is always a good idea 😀

I think that last climb took a little too much out of him & HTC with Renshaw being dropped.

Oh well. The Sliverback has his day!

ta forumites appreciate the commentary

following the guardian live blog, linked to this interview with Flecha: http://www.podiumcafe.com/2011/7/12/2271797/interview-with-flecha-the-driver-didnt-even-stop

Seems like an interesting guy, especially in the last few comments.

He lost Bernhard Eisel quite a way back and was the only HTC guy in those last 2 corners. No launch man as such – i think he would have still had Bernie after that last corner in normal circumstances.

That’s the first time I’ve seen Cav lose a sprint. Good effort though, the other chap was in a much better position.

+1

Be interesting to see what Cav will say about this, it’s the closest I’ve ever seen him to being beaten in an even contest.

Also worth mentioning brilliant ride for Cav, getting up and over all those hills with the rest.

HTC had to battle all day to reel in the break, that and protecting Cav can’t have been easy on those hills – fair play to them all. I don’t think I’d be too upset if I were Cav – that’s racing, he and his team did really well.

1. GILBERT Philippe 226 pts
2. ROJAS Jose Joaquin 209 pts
3. CAVENDISH Mark 197 pts
4. HUSHOVD Thor 163 pts
5. EVANS Cadel 135 pts
6. GREIPEL André 123 pts

Has Cavendish ever been second on the podium as a pro? He tends to be all or nothing.

wow, points super close now, Cav in green by end of tomorrow?

Points compo is a lot closer now 🙂

No interview from Cavendish.. wonder if he’s stormed off or is too gutted to talk and is collecting himself? 🙂

Is a sprinters day tomorrow, so possibly.

No interview from Cavendish.. wonder if he’s stormed off or is too gutted to talk and is collecting himself?

Maybe the interviewers are too scared to go near him..

wonder if he’s stormed off or is too gutted to talk and is collecting himself?

i imagine its one of those drop the bike on the floor / throw your helmet out of the team bus type days.

he’s probably gone to have a word with his chemist

thebunk – Member
Why are the mechanics so massive? They always look knackered after changing a wheel and giving their man a desultory push…

The mechanics are normal sized – the riders are tiny. Even the tall ones are just skin and bones. And legs.

Fitness wise many of us could stay in the peloton for a few miles. Unfortunately the bulk of thos that could do that would crash because they couldnt handle riding in a group of 200 folk.

I’ve wondered about this. How is it any different from riding in a bunch of 30? You just follow the guy in front, don’t brake, and don’t knock into the guys next to you.

Anyone who has ridden the Etape, the Ronde Van Vlaanderen etc wil know that it’s easy to sit in a bunch of 100+ riders. What Cav was referring to was how close to each other the pros ride, just inches between each other as opposed to feet for amateur riders.

crazy-legs – Member
f*** me I’m good – Millar just attacked! Go Millar!!

I predicted that hours ago!! 😆

A good interesting last 20km. Makes a change from some linking stages I’ve seen in the TdF. Hoogerland still going as well.

OOOO no lead out and he gets beaten! Boo I feel a great disappointed when Cav lost especially to Griepel who has a face I jsut want to punch! He quite clearly wanted to go “nah nah na na nah I beat Cav” but was being a little more professional than that 😉
Boooooo come on Cav to win green jersey with his least amonut of wins would be a nice sweet taste in the mouth.

Just watched the highlights, so a bit late to the discussion …

Good to have a rather less ‘eventful’ day today – seeing so many riders get so badly hurt has been pretty awful.

Phillipe Gilbert is really impressive this year, and (not wanting to upset the Cav fans as he is a great sprinter) it was great to have a proper challenging sprint at the end and for it not always to be a foregone conclusion.

Oh, and massive respect to Johnny Hoogerland – he comes across not only as proper hardcore, but also as a genuinely lovely guy