13th, the person who "caught" him from Astana before the mechanical, was Vino lad.

Ah, my mistake.

Schleck is racing more than contador now, having lost time to Sanchez and menchov in the last two days, all the games yesterday may come back to haunt him.

still, makes for a fascinating race, much better than some of lances 5 minute+ years

NEWS FLASH: Astana team bus raided after stage 15. Found 9 empty bodies all signs of human life removed. each body without a soul.

who was tha tall bald danish cheat, who had to take drugs to beat big mig??

who was tha tall bald danish cheat, who had to take drugs to beat big mig??

Rasmussen Ex mountain biker as well!

no, not that one…..the other one.
think he is a team manager now……….. 😆

Bjarne Riis.
Mr 60% as he used to be called due to the % of red blood cells in his blood, artificially boosted by EPO. It's OK, he's now Directeur Sportif of Saxo Bank so can't do any harm…oh.

Saxo Banks manager

Rocketdog i completely agree. Best tour for years

crazy legs……….oh indeedy……… 😆

Cos he's a plick and has been for a long time. Sportsmen such as Ullrich, Armstrong, Indurain and (maybe) Cancellera are not as prevalent as they were?

if he hadn't have faffed around so long trying to get the chain back on, it wouldn't have made much difference!

2days lesson kids..dont buy cheap chains

It would have made a difference, shleck was always going to lose a little bit of time on the descents to contador. If he had managed to attack against contador fairly then he might have been able to open a gap.
I'm hoping shleck does him properly tomorrow

If Shleck does win tomorrow, he's going to lose big in the final time trial, as he really can't cut it.

So, from all this, and having a look on Wiki etc, it appears that the hatred of Contador is pretty much unfounded really. He's not a 'cheat', in as much as he's not tested positive for any banned substance yet, same as most of the other riders I'd presume, including Schleck. He has actually shown good sportsmanship in the past, and today's 'controversy' seems to be because he was perceived to have attacked when another man was 'down'. Which isn't really all that clear. Irrelevant anyway, considering what's at stake. I wouldn't be very sporting when millions of pounds of sponsorship etc were at stake, I don't think. It's his job to win.

As for the not talking English bit; the British/English-speaking media does seem to favour those sportsmen who can give a good interview for English-speaking audiences, fair enough. Not really a good reason to dislike someone though.

true, he is going to have to go bonkers at some point to make a big enough gap

2days lesson kids..dont buy cheap chains
I didn't see a broken chain though

I don't "hate" Contador, but I'm profoundly suspicious of him. That's prejudice, of course. But those climbs up to Verbier and Andorra last year reminded me of Ricardo Ricco the day he got busted. It makes me slightly queasy to watch it. And I'm so over "I've never tested positive". 😐

Stage 2: Schleck goes down, everyone has to wait for him (although not for VdV who is even further back)
Stage 3: Schleck's brother goes down, everyone else gets stuck behind the crash, Schleck waits for no-one
Stage 15: Schleck bungles a gear change, and…karma

rusty, that is a genius post !!!!

fwiw I thought he should have soft pedalled for 10s just enough time for him to get off the bike and put the chain on – he had to put it back on twice which makes me think that he'll have to live with the time gap and the fact that he won't get the mj back

however he wouldn't have been dropped on the descent if he was with contador at the top, the reason contador pulled away coming down was that he was with a bigger group than schleck (AS had 2 other riders with him who just followed) and bertie's group had the other top 5 GC contenders who wanted to put time into Andy, and who could ride strong and descend well

This sportsmanship thing about mechicnal problems only exists in endurance events. In every other form of racing no one cares if you have a mechincal its just tough titties on you.

The loss of the MJ is so so. In the end if the GC is won by Bert over Andy by 38secs or less then today was an issue. However with the next few days and the TT i think it will swing one way or the other by a larger margin so be irrelevant.

Andy having to push a bit harder today effects him but as Sean Kelly said all the main GC contenders were up there pushing hard Andy to catch up, Bert, Menchov etc to put time into Andy.

Andy is now 8 sec behind not 8 minutes so bad sportsmanship or ignorance from Bert, Schleck is still well up in the running and iots not over yet.

Andy went on the attack…what would have happened if his chain stayed on, and he dropped Contador and made it to the top 30 secs up, and on his own?
He would have been caught by the following pack on the run-in.
Andy seems like a really nice guy, but nice guys don't often win the TDF.
That Irish charmer Roach is clearly the exception.

Of course, the mudslinging about Contador's involvement in Puerta is kind of selective given the money the Schlecks paid to a doctor for "training advice" when said doctor is a know purveyor of dope?

Not a massive fan of Contador, but there's at least as much evidence that Schleck is a cheating weasel as well, and as someone's already pointed out, was in yellow due to his taking advantage of an earlier crash which held up Contador in stage 2.

As for all the "Contador's ruined the Tour for me" whiners – man up.

there's at least as much evidence that Schleck is a cheating weasel as well,

I think it's pretty much a given that there are plenty of cheating weasels still riding, whether they're 'clean' now or not. Personally I think it should be lifetime bans – take Vin's inability to express regret at doping – it drives me up the wall, doesn't do the sport any good at all to have him there.

A lot of folk don't seem to understand the problem is attaching the yellow jersey in that manner in the third week of the tour. The crash in week one is irrelevant.

And bringing doping into it just fugs the issue. That's irrelevant in this thread – but of course not irrelevant to the sport or the race.

He does come over a bit cocky and full of himself with all that fingerbang, odd haircut, and aloofness stuff. But he's turned that down this year. And not talking English makes it worse.

The thing about the chain is, if Contador beats Schleck by less than 30 seconds by Paris then it will be 'he only won because……'. So he should of waited. I don't believe him when he said he didn't realize abbout the chain.

However, it does not matter because the gap will be more than 30 seconds in the end.

the gap will be more than 30 seconds in the end

The trouble is the "might have beens". If that goal against Germany had been allowed England would have won, if Schleck had gone into the last time trial in yellow he'd have given the performance of a lifetime etc. 🙂

All in all it makes for a few more days of exciting riding. Schlecks got to attack and punish the spanish snake. Contador's gotta open up a big enough time gap now to prove that he didn't win the tour on a slipped chain. So for Jo public it'll make it a better tour.
That said he is a twonk for attacking and after days of them both matching each other Contador took the time by taking advantage, not by superior performance. I do believe Schleck would have waited, he come across as an honourable bloke who wouldn't have wanted his 1st tour victory on those terms.
For those of you that think Schleck couldn't have put anytime into Contador. Did you seem him after he got back on the bike? I know it was adrenalin fueled but come on. He dropped 36 second on the chain and only 39 second overall. Thats a 3 second drop to get yourself up a BIG climb and then down a descent with no help and a couple of hanger on's whilst Contador shared the work in a pack of strong GC contenders all trying to put time into Andy.

nickc….for the record, Contador did not wait for Schleck in stage two. He waited for a lot of riders after a lot of crashes, one of which happened to be Andy. Andy didn't wait for his Brother in stage 3 as he didn't get up and wasn't able to carry on racing. Thats the benefit of team radio's and knowing whats happening. If Frank had of been able to carry on then the team would have made a decison about getting him back but either way its not taking advantage of another opponent.

Why do the British media and STW have it in for Contador?

He's Spanish, what other reason do you need!! have you lot forgotten the Armada 😆

And don't get me started on that weasel Alonso 👿

I think Contador would have waited at any other point in the stage. But Schleck launched an attack that made the top four react.
Schleck fluffed the attack, it's the done thing to respect other riders at that level in the race any other time but not when they've just attacked you.
The descent point is an interesting one. If Schleck had got over the top on his own, it looks like the twins and Bertie would have caught him any way?

The descent point is an interesting one. If Schleck had got over the top on his own, it looks like the twins and Bertie would have caught him any way?

Maybe, but he'd still have a 31 second lead and the yellow jersey…

I don't think Schleck can beat Contador anyway but it's poor form to attack the yellow jersey when they have a mechanical . . . . . .

He's not a 'cheat', in as much as he's not tested positive for any banned substance yet, same as most of the other riders I'd presume

Thats never stopped a fair amount of Armstrong hatred round here 🙂

I think Contador should have sat up, but Menchov and Sanchez did their bit in making it difficult for him to do so – that said, if he had they might have too.

Having proven cheat Vino in his team doesn't warm him to me to be honest either.

Does anyone else get the impression Vinokourov is holding back – he seems to be flying, and itching to attack. I wonder why???

If Vino's clean then I'll eat my hat frankly!

If Schleck attacks today he'll just waste energy, with a 60k flat run out to the finish he'll never make a gap stick, it's going to come down to Thursday's stage, which is exactly what the organisers wanted!

I'm very much of the 'don't attack a man when he's down' philosophy, but as many have said Schleck attacked, then screwed up, I think he was fair game. Had he just been riding in the bunch, and Contador had attacked it would've been different.

Still don't like Contador, and like others, not 100% sure why not!

Regardless of that, best tour in a long time.

Well, Schleck has just accepted Contador's apology, and seems ok with everything. I think both accept that that's racing, and have moved on.

I suspect that everyone else will rant on about it for ever more, but good that the two riders have been grown-up and professional about it all. It's now irrelevant what anyone else thinks now anyway, as it was to begin with really.

I like both Contador and Schleck more now than before, and good luck to both of them for the rest of the race.

So if Contador had attacked from that same group and the same thing happened to his chain would the guys who were 3rd, 4th and 5th in the GC have been expected to wait on Contador?

Ive no real preference between any of them but think this has added a nice dose of spice to the proceedings