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Looks pretty horrible today, tollah got out just in time. But I'm expecting a brilliant finish 😀
Thanks for starting this one 🙂
I dunno what they'll make of this stage. It's hardly hilly, and there's a lot of flat for everyone to catch up again if they get spread out.. but then there's that kick at the end. Someone who can hammer up a short climb...
EDIT: the letour.fr coverage reckons it'll be a day for former MTBers - makes sense to be fair.
Horrible day out there. Really shite weather. Philippe Gilbert or Evans for todays win.
Slight hijack - what's that bike that Chris Boardman is riding when he does the piece-to-camera of the stage finishes on the ITV coverage? It's de-badged and looks quite 'aero-road' - one from next years Boardman range?
EDIT: answered my own question - debadged AirTT-9.8 by the looks of it
Horrible day out there. Really shite weather. Philippe Gilbert or Evans for todays win.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Contador go for it, to get some time back. I think he's worried about how far down he is.
Did anyone see this? Just heard them talking about it in commentary. I missed the sprint cause my internet went..
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-hushovd-relegated-in-tour-de-france-sprint
thor wasn't holding his line and cav held him off with his head rather than give up his line.
punishments a bit harsh, but not surprising
This too...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/blazing-saddles-row-erupts-over-rider-positions-in-ttt
🙄
I think both riders were disappointed - neither felt aggrieved towards the other so why the commissaire would do this is a mystery.
Another slight hijack - anyone know whats happened to the BBC Sport live text feed for the TDF this year?
I saw they covered the first two stages but not yesterday or today by the looks of it. I rely on that to keep up to speed until I can watch the ITV highlights.
[url] http://data.srmlive.de/TDF/ [/url]
this is quite a cool gizmo, it will come into its own when the Tour hits the mountains I reckon.
What's with 5 live sports extra? Yesterday they had coverage, today can't find anything.
Bugger.. Eurosport player forces me to listen in German in Germany.
I wish I had chaps in cars following me who could change punctures in a matter of seconds ! I can see the group being reeled in quickly if the peloton really wanted to.
And they will - they always do. These early breakaways are not attempts to win the stage - just TV time for their sponsors, and everyone knows that. Thanks to team radios breaks on flat stages never succeed 🙁
Ridden loads round that area as my mother lived just outside Carhaix (tomorrows start town) for 10 years, the riding is tougher than it looks on the profile as you dont have much flat its either up or down.
Bit sad she moved back to the UK as it was a great way of having cheap holidays 🙁
That bike with people as the wheels was cool ! better than the tractor one of yesterday
molgrips what are you doing listening to 5 live sports 😮 this isn't footy, tennis or cricket. They can barely cover the Rugby without flicking to a footy commentary every 10 secs.
I love the 'bicycles' that the little towns and villages do with hay bales and tractors and stuff. Just bin one with loads of people linking arms being the 'wheels'. Fantastic. Must take a lot of thought and planning to do them. Some beautiful flower arrangements and that too. So nice to see the people of a nation making such an effort for a cycle race. Biggup an nuff respek to the French dem.
Ooh! Close one!
Cuddle wins by a tyre width!
DaRC - in Germany my options are limited!
Great ride by Cadel, considering he had to sprint back into the peleton a few times....
Glad he beat Contador.
Yeah, thank God Contador didn't win!
Just a shame that 2 dopey drugged cheats (Contador and Vinokourov) were 2nd and 3rd...
Bertie's just pushing Cuddle to breaking point. Cuddle won't be able to keep that up, and will suffer later on in the Tour. Bertie will then drop him. I can't see anyone other than Andy Schleck staying with Bertie. Wiggo can't, simple as that.
Just a shame that 2 dopey drugged cheats
Yawn. Enough already, eh? Don't hear you moaning about that other dopey druggie cheat David Millar being in 4th place.... 🙄
Be nice to see The God of Thunder win the green jersey again, instead of The Spoilt Toddler. That will annoy many on here which can only be a good thing.
having avoided this thread all afternoon, i find an IE window with the Guardian in it - todays result proudly displayed at the top of the front page
thats four days so far, no highlights programmes watched :o(
what's that bike that Chris Boardman is riding
AFAIK, it's a Boardman bike, sans logo. Nice looking bikes once you've disassociated them from Halfords.
well the last 2 days its clashed with scooby do, my daughters fav show and the only tv she watches, made it to 15k to go today, fired up the laptop and missed it al by the time it loaded! to add insult to injury my other daughter is on a school trip in normandy and has turned down an option to see the tour tomorrow!!
Bertie looked knackered with 500 metres to go, great ride by cuddles.
wouldn't read to much into this climb, or the result. Its a lot steeper and punchier than any alpe or pryneean (sp) climb.
The Spanish steak looked a bit panicked today. Great ride by Cadel and Thor. Shaping up to be a brilliant tour. Surprisingly normal interview by Cadel too.
Did like how Thor changed out of his team kit and into his world champs kit, including bibs, before going onto the podium. Casually Deliberate to the max.
Is Clenbutador off the pace because he's clean or because of the Giro?
Great to see Evans get the win. I can't warm to him as a personality but I do have the greatest respect for him as a clean athlete and think he deserves a bit of good form and some good luck to go with it.
Contador looked like he'd overcooked it with the first acceleration, can't actually ever remember seeing him pull that grimace face that he did today. He normally looks like he's not actually making any effort, could be the affect of his new low protein diet.
Funny that little arm in the air thing he did too. 'Yeah look at me I'm the [s]winner[/s] person that came second'
The Giro was a killer, pressure being off the GC so early must be playing on him. He will have to put in a massive one in the hills and they will all be watching like hawks.
muppetWrangler - Member
Great to see Evans get the win. I can't warm to him as a personality but I do have the greatest respect for him as a clean athlete and think he deserves a bit of good form and some good luck to go with it
How do you know he's clean?
I take a position of believing in the athletes performance until there is sufficient doubt to make me think otherwise and I've never seen or heard anything suspicious on Evans.
Obviously it would be very virtually impossible to prove conclusively that anyone hasn't taken a banned substance but I'd put Evans very, very, very low down on the sliding scale of grey area athletes.
How to deal with sprinters!
Why cant people give Contador a break. The amount of drugs in his system was nothing and would have made no difference performance wise. The farting around with hearings is really not his fault and he will likely get let off anyway when they get round to it.
Even if he was doping (which I doubt), its not like he is the only one.
I don't like him cos I don't like his media personality - doping scandals aside. I appreciate he may be a nice bloke really but how are us fans meant to make a decision on who to support? Plus he's won what, three times now, so my natural tendency is to favour the plucky underdog, the Brit or the patient waiter-in-wings.
Clenbutador
That's funny though regardless 🙂
Why cant people give Contador a break
Foreign, in't he?
As I've already said; no-one seems to be getting all het up over that known cheat David Millar....
The amount of drugs in his system was nothing
It's not a naturally occurring substance within the body so the amount is immaterial.
and would have made no difference performance wise
It would have if it were taken earlier in the year during a training phase and only reentered the body during the tour by miscalculation as part of a rest day transfusion.
The farting around with hearings is really not his fault
Agree in part aside from the fact that the latest delay in pushing the hearing back into August was requested by Contador's legal team in order to properly assemble their case.
and he will likely get let off anyway when they get round to it.
If I were a cynical sort of person I would have considered the idea of delaying the case would be to make any ban he might receive so damning to cycling (potential loss of three grand tours results) that the UCI might be encouraged to try and influence a negative decision. How much influence they would be able to exert over CAS I don't know, but if a defence is weak then it makes sense to try and leverage any gain you can no matter how marginal it might be.
Even if he was doping (which I doubt), its not like he is the only one.
No he isn't but every person that gains an advantage through cheating displaces someone that doesn't.
If you believe "they are all at it" then the cheats displace new riders that don't wish to damage their health in order to compete on level terms with the pro peloton.
If you think it's a few bad apples then it displaces possibly the 13th or 15th positioned rider that might otherwise have got a top ten or the rider that gets 4th or 5th that would otherwise have podiumed. Or the rider that came second on a stage when they should otherwise have won it.
contadoer is a drug cheat who so far has got away with failing a drug test. if he is not banned and disqualified from last years TDF and the Giro and whatever he gets in this TDF ( as he should be under the rules) cycling loses. It will have no credibility left.
Sweet Jesus of Nazareth...
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I'm gutted that tommy voeckler didn't go on a solo attack from 100k out and get the win 🙁
😆
As I've already said; no-one seems to be getting all het up over that known cheat David Millar....
Perhaps that is because he was caught, admitted his offence, served his punishment, has spent his time since coming back into the Peloton as an advocate of clean cycling and as far as I'm aware there is no suspicion of him reoffending.
Comparing someone that has been caught, punished and for want of a better word rehabilitated to someone that appears to be getting away with it is bound to produce a different response regardless of their nationality.
As I've already said; no-one seems to be getting all het up over that known cheat David Millar....
Cos Millar admitted what he'd done, served his ban and has actually become a very valuable tool in the fight against doping as well as a respected figure in the peloton - look at his lauded bahaviour when he was wearing the pink jersey the day after Wouter Weylandt was killed in the Giro.
Perhaps that is because he was caught, admitted his offence, served his punishment, has spent his time since coming back into the Peloton as an advocate of clean cycling and as far as I'm aware there is no suspicion of him reoffending.
Bertie has so far bin cleared of any wrong-doing. You know, it is just possible he is actually telling the truth, had you considered that?
I hope he wins and is then cleared completely once and for all by the UCI. Because that will really pee off his haterz, and will amuse and please me immensely. 🙂
Bertie FTW, ThunderGod for the Green jersey, Wiggo in fourth just one second behind the podium, having had a mechanical chain slip or something and the others din't wait for him, and Spoilt Toddler to throw a massive tantrum and lob his bike at a commissaries then getting banned from the Tour for life.
That would right make my day.
And if it din't happen like that then I woon't be bothered cos road racing is boring don't watch it anyway so shut up.
Cos Millar admitted what he'd done, served his ban and has actually become a very valuable tool in the fight against doping as well as a respected figure in the peloton - look at his lauded bahaviour when he was wearing the pink jersey the day after Wouter Weylandt was killed in the Giro.
Still forever a Cheat.
Elf, have you read Cav's twitter feed?
Bertie has so far bin cleared of any wrong-doing. You know, it is just possible he is actually telling the truth, had you considered that?
it is possible, athletes have been cleared of clenbuterol use in the past normally there has been reasonable doubt due to the offence occurring in a country where its usage in farming is widespread rather than in a country where its use has been banned for a number of years but it is still possible. If there were some sort of proof, maybe a receipt from the butcher, or even an address would be a start, some sort of trace of the food supply chain back to the farm. We could start with a plausible story, clenbuterol use in cattle makes the beef quite tough and hardly the sort of steak you would have driven across borders for you to enjoy alone on a rest day of the TdF.
If he is telling the truth and can offer some evidence beyond his say so then I for one will never offer up another bad word against him.
fred/elf - why do you write like a spaztard?
To confuse people like you.
Is every thread about the tour going to end up with the same people saying the same things about contador? Just let me know now and I'll avoid them.
Pretty much.
Is every thread about the tour going to end up with the same people saying the same things about contador?
What do you think? It stopped being an interesting exchange of opinions a long time ago. But it can still be a bit funny though. I'll give you my opinion after the official verdict. I quite like the ability to ignore reality and still spout on and on and on and on.
Won't matter if Bertie is found guilty anyway, as then he can just come clean, act all contrite and repentant, do some good works for the anti-doping campaign and charidee, say some really pious and sanctimonious stuff, wear a stupid beret and then everyone will love him again.
Won't they?
are you suggesting repentance is a bad thing?
I quite like the ability to ignore reality and still spout on and on and on and on.
we had noticed 😆
Fred what is it that attracts you to Spanish men so much?
You seem to have an almost psychotic love for Alonso & Contador 😆
Check the top out too (matches the bike's colour scheme):
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That's a Spain footy top if you din't know.
(Ignore the cahs. They are just showing off. Attention seekers)
In true STW tradition I'd say those socks were too long and the lawn needs cutting.
Those are Darth Vader socks. That's why they're pulled up. So the cahs can see why not to mess.
No Fred the top is about 2 shades lighter (my wife says so and she's a textile designer so there 😛 )
Is that the first time you have seen real live cows? And did you check that they were free range & not injected with any performance enhancing chemicals 😉
They look terrified from here.
They were really inconsiderate. 🙁
The yellow stripes on the sleeves are a tad lighter, but the yellow on the badge matches fairly well. The red is pretty much spot-on.
Your computer screen is out of whack....
Was worth legging it back from my ride* tonight to watch the highlights - back at the house by 7.02 - bike in the lounge, tv on in the nick of time, trying to watch whilst my head's upside down doing post-ride yogic stretchy things 🙂 good effort from Hushovd today.
*was also worth legging it as I overtook a fully paid up member of the roadie squad who looked slightly upset as I was (a) wearing mtb shorts, and (b) still had the peak on my helmet
Whats the deffo of a considerate cah then?
why have you got a mudguard on? looks dry as a bone. southern softie.
Watched the highlights last night
Can someone tell me - is leyoupard trek the same team as leopard trek? I'm finding it hard to follow the race
Elfinsafety - MemberWhy cant people give Contador a break
Foreign, in't he?
As I've already said; no-one seems to be getting all het up over that known cheat David Millar....
i think they are both cheats, i used to really admire Millar, his only redeeming feature now is that at least he admitted cheating, contador hasn't even got the balls to do that
Can someone tell me - is leyoupard trek the same team as leopard trek? I'm finding it hard to follow the race
At the start of the year when the team was set up, they couldn't find a partner sponsor so they just thought of something which sounded vaguely cool while also not being associated with any brand name. And some people pronounce it leopard, some say lee-you-pard.
Much more amusingly, Leopard Trek is an anagram of "altered pork" which obviously lead to all sorts of predictable jokes about Alberto Contador.
Elf - you need to iDave that belly out of existence.
Blimey Fred you look a bit tubby...even in a pic full of fat cows! And short...well...that explains a lot.
Elfinsafety - MemberAs I've already said; no-one seems to be getting all het up over that known cheat David Millar....
The whole thing makes me laugh...Contador has not been found guilty, yet he's been given the hardest time.
Ironic that Millar appears to have been forgiven by the press, unlike the small minded "always guilty"...do those folk really believe that everyeon that's not been caught is clean? 🙄
I thought he tested positive for a banned substance. In any other sport that would be an instant ban surely.Contador has not been found guilty
Indeed j_me - he was let off by the spanish federation in clear breach of the rules. He is guilty of having clenbuterol in his system but has not been punished.
I’ve got two TDF questions
1) Why is that commentator in ITV4 soooo bad. Is it me, or does he get everything wrong?
2) Was Cadel Evans separated at birth from that character who tried to pick a fight with Luke Skywalker in the bar of Mos wherever? As, he too seem to have a bum on his chin.
Elf - you need to iDave that belly out of existence.
Blimey Fred you look a bit tubby..
😆
That's my Indurain Belly (AKA Winter Belly). It'll be gone soon.
why have you got a mudguard on? looks dry as a bone.
True, it weren't much use on that ride, but there's always the danger of cah pats you know.
Cahs are inconsiderate, they just poo everywhere. No thought given to anyone else. Totally selfish. Bang out of order.