Sponsor situation may be resolved at Highroad:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/stapleton-with-new-sponsor-for-highroad

My money is on none of the major players in the Cav sprint train leaving.

Pace RC405?

This is a bargain if your size:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/pace-rc405-am-frameset-with-headset-and-bb-2010/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products

Anyone know when he’s likely to be back on his bike?

apparently he is already out on training rides.

Race Face evolve AM low rise is the exact same shape (got one of each). Might be able to get one cheap somewhere given raceface have gone bust.

Unbelievable! great ride, well deserved tour win by Evans

Don’t understand all the love for the rubber faced, whiny Aussie. I’d far prefer Andy Schleck to win but sadly doesn’t look like that’s going to happen

Schleck will win it eventually, he’s only young. This is Evans last chance.

Bloody adverts!

Because they are better, of course.

+1

Evans is going to do this!

COME ON CADEL!!!

I did a triathlon at Blenheim recently, the guy parked next to me had the Trek TT bike, fully kitted out with zipps, dura-ace etc, it was absolutely pimp

you can space the rockshox fork down to 100mm i think. Boardman if it was my money

love AC’s bike . . . . 6 Grand?

Probably more. frameset is 3.5 i think, wheels probably 2(maybe more), then you’ve still got to kit out the groupset, powermeter, finishing kit…

olympics innit

edit: too slow

MTFU?

and breathe

You’re welcome.

looked at the profile of the annecy tt and it nothing like the grenoble course so i wouldn’t use it to make predictions

I’m not, but I couldn’t be bothered trawling the archives for more examples. I just used it as an illustration that Andy is a better TTer than his brother, which he is generally accepted to be.

I thought Frank was better then Andy.

Nope. Neither is brilliant, but Frank the worst of the two.

For example: Annecy TT in 2009, Andy beat Frank by 49 seconds (FWIW, Evans beat Andy by 31 seconds in Annecy TT)

So what’s the order of start tomorrow (no idea how these things work!)…

Reverse of GC, so andy is off last, frank before him and cadel before him.

Cadel is the best TTer of the 3, then Andy, Frank is the worst.

Not telling.

Cav loses 20pts, but not eliminated.

Is Rojas ahead of Cav? They were in the grupetto together, and with Gilbert, earlier.

Could we have all the green jersey contenders eliminated? that would be mental.

because cadel is by far and away the best tt’er excluding contador…
id love to see conta ride to the win tomorow on the alpe…

Yes, but there is another mountain to go, on which Evans could lose more time to Schleck. Assume they come in together (probably best case for Evans on the Alpe), that still means he has to beat Schleck by a massive 58 seconds in the TT.
I’d say that is far from cut and dried. Evans has given himself a chance today, but it is a long way from sewn up.

Chapeau to Schleck. Turns out he really does know how to attack… what a ride!

Also chapeau to Evans and Voeckler, they were the only ones of the chasing group who really wanted it.

(I’d love to see Evans win it)

Bravo, well done.

Well yesterday’s tour stage went up and down a mountain, as did today’s, and tomorrow’s goes up three mountains and down two. So I’d say it’s a pretty helpful skill to have, yeah.

Every stage is a one day race, winning a stage on the tour is bigger than most one day races (classics and monuments excepted).

There will probably be a thread on here later with someone boasting about how he scalped 4 roadies on his knobbly tired MTB.

They don’t have to but they do, then they can then sell them to mere mortals “as ridden in the TDF”

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/racing/article/tour-de-france-tech-looking-through-the-magnifying-glass-30925

Link for BB weights, it’s Leopard Trek, not Astana, my mistake.

They put the weight in there because it keeps the COG low, apparently.

A lot of teams are inventing new ways to add weight these days, to get them up to the minimum weight limit. See astana’s chainset axle weights for example. Apparently they used to just shove bits of chain down the seat tube but it seems to have gotten a bit more sophisticated recently!

It is very easy, with enough dosh, to be riding a bike lighter than the pros are on.

Most of them are pretty much off the peg these days, with a few exceptions. Some sprinters have their frames beefed up around the bottom bracket for example.

Component specs will usually vary depending on sponsor deals etc.

They haven’t been able to conclusively prove that he does get an advantage though, hence the CAS overrule allowing him to compete.

Yes, in my opinion.

what seat post is that?

Looks like an x-fusion hilo

Give it a few more rides before you start changing things. It takes time to get used to it.

Altura night vision flite.

That looks shit, send it back

Darren Clarke was awesome today. We watched him on several holes, including his brilliant eagle on the 7th. There was so much warmth for him from the crowd, the cheers for all the players were great but for Darren they were another level. He was great too, acknowledging and thanking the crowd all the way round, came across as a great bloke and a well deserving champion. Chuffed to bits that he won it.

Top day out, despite the crazy weather!

What a tour Thor is having!

Rusty, why have your descending speeds dropped?

50×11 is 50×11 whether you have a 23 largest sprocket or a 28. Unless you were running a standard double before?

No.