Official running, no, make that official CYCLING 97th Tour de France thread...

Re: Official running, no, make that official CYCLING 97th Tour de France thread.

I think that puncture ended Armstrong's shot at yellow. It'll be interesting to see if he can reel back that 50-second gap to Contador.

 

Plenty of time left. But Contador got a huge leg up today.

Armstrong still has a stronger team to help him in the mountains and all it will take is a ill-timed puncture for Contador to give back a lot of what he gained today.

The big winners today were Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck

 

It sucks Armstrong was in a group ahead of Contador and putting time on him until the flat.

Yeah, Schleck and Evans were the big winners.

 

The more I watch Andy, the more I like him. Seems to be a quality guy.

I thought Frank was even more seriously injured than just a broken clavicle; of course, that's bad enough.

 

Re: Official running, no, make that official CYCLING 97th Tour de France thread.

I noticed Liggett and Sherwen were wearing plain, un-logoed shirts. Haven't they had a clothing deal for a few years now?

 

that's the kind of stuff that wins awards.. "In September, Mr. Landis said, he was about to take a morning bike ride in Temecula, Calif., when his phone rang. His lawyer, Maurice Suh, told him the WADA panel was about to make its decision. Mr. Landis said he went into the garage and cracked open a beer. "If there was ever a time to drink in the morning," he said, "that was it."

A couple of hours later, Mr. Suh told him he'd lost his appeal.

Mr. Landis walked upstairs to find his 2008 Tour de France trophy. With the iconic purple chalice in his hands, he walked onto the balcony overlooking his driveway, hoisted the trophy over his head and threw it as hard as he could. It hit the pavement and shattered into a thousand pieces."
http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424052748704911704575326753200584006.html

 

Lance Armstrong says his hopes are fading
LANCE Armstong concedes his chances of landing an eighth Tour de France victory have drifted, but the American is not prepared to concede yet.


Armstrong, 38, admitted his quest had become tougher after puncturing on a hellish section of cobblestones, just as the decisive final push in the race unfolded.

"They dropped," Armstrong said, referring to his general classification hopes.

"But we'll have to keep our head up and take our chances on the climbs. It was just bad luck.

"My chances took a knock today but we're not going home. We'll stay in the race.

"I'm not going to make excuses. We came in and I was in good position. There was the crash that split the group.

"We tried to come back and I got the flat tire at the wrong moment. It's very difficult to come back.


"That's the nature of the sport."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/cycling/lance-armstrong-says-his-hopes-are-fading/story-fn3owcsl-1225888771084

 

If Lance had only lost time to one true GC threat, he might be OK. But with Contador, Schleck and Evans all holding a solid lead, it'll be tough to reel them all three in.

Did Evans ever take a turn in that group today. He's the wheel-suckingest son of a gun on the planet.

 

The pics on the cobbles from today are awesome.

 

Pretty sure Andy Schelck didn't take a turn up front either. GC guys never pull. Never.

I was in a crit race Monday and one dude took off like a rocket after the prime lap -- not a bad counter-attack move because some people shoot their load going after that $10 and sit up after the sprint. But he went solo for about eight laps about 50 meters off the front. The group let him dangle as long as he wanted to try to go solo.

He gave it up with three laps to go, but went back out front after taking a lap to catch his breath.

He pulled for the final two laps, with a teammate sucking wheel right behind him, then ended up taking second behind the guy who was third wheel for the final three laps. When it was over, the guy who went solo for so long started chewing out the winner for never taking a pull. That was kind of funny considering he killed himself by going solo for eight laps.

Point being, there's nothing wrong with letting another team's strong man do all the work for one of his teammates and taking advantage of it yourself.

As for me, I was spit out the back after the prime lap (caught behind the attackers after they sat up and I couldn't get around them to match the counter attack) and couldn't bridge to the chase group. My 4,000 foot climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon earlier that morning might have had something to do with that.

 

No, Schleck didn't take a pull either, but the difference was Cancellara was there pulling for him. There is nothing wrong with Evans never taking a turn. I was just pointing out that he has a reputation for it. Thor may very well never have pulled either. I don't recall.

 

I remember one section where Fabu was pulling and he gave the signal for someone else to come around and take a pull. Thor was second wheel at that point and he just sat there. When there are only 10k or so to go, a lot of the gentlemanly rules are disregarded. At that point it's all about looking out for you own best interests. In that case, the only one in that group not most interested in himself was Cancellara because he had his GC guy to work for.

Today is going to be a massive wheel suck with the GC guys being protected by their teams.

This is a stage of Cav, Farrar or Thor to do their thing.