mad stage. come on wiggo

Indeed, get the job done.

so that’s why he’s got a mtb cassette.

Kicks off at 10pm on the TV here, think a few beers and a late night is in order.

Evans and Nibali need to work together if they want to have a chance. Not sure if that will happen – neither seem to have enough team to make it work on their own. It will take something fairly special to break that Sky team up on there (except Cav who I expect to be checking for anything coming from the back of the group)

Long shot of the day TJ Van thingy overtaking Evans as top BMC man and SBS pulling the plug on the broadcast for down under.

Its going to go off in the Pyrenees today I feel, I’m sure Mr. Wiggins will keep things in check and not worry too much. TT on Sat will allow him to regain any lost time today and tomorrow.
If Evans goes too early I think he’ll bomb out again, he just doesn’t have it this year. Nibali seems to have a great kick but doesn’t seem able to keep it up for long, I guess with a dh finish if Nibali kicks just before the top of the last climb he’s a good chance of descending to the end and gaining a bit on Froome, I’m sure he’ll not take the yellow though.

They are riding over the Matterhorn?!

ouch!

Good grief, 5,000m climbing! Here’s the Strava of a fairly handy rider doing it on Saturday http://app.strava.com/rides/l-etape-du-tour-acte-2-2012-11eme-scratch-2eme-categorie-40-13433110

Virenque?

At least half of it is downhill…..

Love Toblerone

Frank Schleck won’t be joining them today as he’s been ‘poisoned’ with a diuretic. Oh dear 😥
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frank-schleck-requests-b-sample-will-claim-hes-been-poisoned

[FACT] Bertie ate that steak in Pau[/FACT]

rewski – Member
so that’s why he’s got a mtb cassette.

Surely they’ll all be running 53/39 with 11-23 on the back as that is all you’ll ever need unless you have weak legs.

excuse my lack of bio/physiology knowledge but what’s performance enhancing about peeing a lot?

Masking agent?

Stunning scenery, if they get the chance to admire it 😀
Google street view… on the way up
and on the way down…..

Frank Schleck won’t be joining them today as he’s been ‘poisoned’ with a diuretic

I sometimes wonder when they take cokes or bottles of water from spectators on the roadside. Would be easy to drop something in one and by the time the rider thinks it tastes a bit funny the damage is done. Far fetched? Not beyond the wit of the kind of person that might think it a laugh to spread a layer of carpet tacks over the road.

excuse my lack of bio/physiology knowledge but what’s performance enhancing about peeing a lot?

4 reasons.

1) fighters (boxing, martial arts etc) compete in weight categories, pissing out half a stone and alsmot passing out through dehydration is the order of the day at weigh in (after which you can drink litres of water and hit the gym again). Less relavent to cyclists

2) Dilutes your pee, if they’re looking for a concentration of something then diluting your pee puts it under the threshold.

3) can be used to selectively remove things from your blood into pee based on pH, so if your performance enhanceing drug is acidic, and you take a diuretic that excreets alkali’s preferentialy they wont show up in urine samples.

4) Flushes drugs out of the day before testing, so on the eve of the TDF take some diuetics and drink gallons of water and the past 6 months drug use is washed through.

You spent much time racing in Belgium Thisisnotaspoon?

Would be easy to drop something in one

Had the same thought but watching the other day, all I saw were riders taking water and tipping over the back of head/neck etc to cool down.
I’m sure 99.999999999999% of what they get offered is perfectly legit, however, you just never know….

It used to be that most riders would only drink from cans they took if they opened them themselves and opened bottles of water would just be poured over the head.

You spent much time racing in Belgium Thisisnotaspoon?

Nope, I’d be thinner if I had 🙂

I did a degree in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry with a couple of optional medicinal chemistry modules.

Ah, the Col du Marmalade. I know it well…

It used to be that most riders would only drink from cans they took if they opened them themselves and opened bottles of water would just be poured over the head.

They won’t drink anything given to them by a spectator, with a few exceptions, for instance there is a French guy who takes his holiday every year by following the Tour de France in his van and supporting Rabobank (and its predecessors). As he is trusted, Rabo will provide him with drinks to give out to their cyclists – but there is no way they would drink from something just handed to them by someone they don’t know.

cheers TINAS, knew about 1 but as you say not relevant, 2&4 I should have been able to guess, didn’t know about 3.

cheeky, surely if someone was trying to get you kicked they’d have just poisoned you with a proper enhancing drug rather than the stuff you use to hide them