Running Tour de France Thread

As far as the yellow jersey, part of it is the prestige you get from being the owner. The other, and probably more significant part, is the attention your team's sponsors get thanks to all the close-up shots of you with your adorned jersey on.

 

Yes, there is a payday for stage winners. And most upper-end riders get a contract bonus for winning stages as well. Normally, elite riders take their stage money and throw it into a hat to be divided among their support riders.

 

Plus, days in yellow are counted for the record books. Armstrong has 83-84 days in yellow.

There are also pay bonuses for the sprint and KOM points lines that dot the stage, probably 400-500 each. They're called "preems" short for premiums.

 

Lance's hopes took a hit -- who knows how big -- when Levi Leipheimer was forced to withdraw with a broken wrist.

Sucks.

I've ridden with Levi a few times and he was in as good form as anyone out there. There was a very real chance to see 1, 2, 3 for Astana.

 

Welcome back, Idy -- never see you around any more.

I'm crushed that my favorite, Big George Hincapie, was kept from the yellow by a pack of pussy Garmin riders. So much for patriotism...and damn if I didn't give my wife a Garmin unit this morning! (sexual pun intended, but it's true...I DID give her a Garmin Nuvi).

Tomorrow could well decide the race. So glad I get to wake up and watch it live after 13 straight days of having to work!

 

I was bummed about Hincapie, too. But it wasn't the riders. They just push the pace their race director tells them to push. I chat with DZ every now and then, he was not happy at all about what went down.

In any regards, the race was all-but won Sunday by Contador. He has a nice lead and still has two extremely strong riders committed to carry him up those mountains.

Unless he blows up and bonks on Ventoux, he will win it all. Lance will likely end up on the podium and a majority of the media (especially the French and Spanish media) will celebrate the 'end of Armstrong' as if finishing third in that race is a major disappointment.

 

I wouldn't call it over yet. There's still a long indy time trial lurking a few days from. armstrong may play the good teammate these next few days in the mountains, but if the yellow is there, he may go out and steal it on the tt.

 

The Hincapie thing was just weird all around, but it'll probably fade more and more into the background during the final stages. And I tend to agree it's probably already won by Contador; the most interesting thing now is how the podium spots will go (ie, Astana potentially sweeping, Wiggins actually finishing Top3, etc).

 

He's 1:37 behind Contador. At his best, I don't know if Armstrong could make up that much time on the 2009 version of Contador on a 25.2-mile ITT.

 

Not to mention he'll probably lose more time to Contador on upcoming mountain stages. That's also partly why the race is over. Even among the guys who could attack Contador in the hills, and maybe catch him off-guard (Schleck, Sastre), they can't TT as well. Like Idaho said, it would take a big bonking/crash for Contador to lose.

 

Is it just me, or does the Tour seem to have the worst media setup of any major event on the planet? I would think at the very least you'd have bullpen sessions with the stage winner and yellow jersey wearer each day, but it seems like everything is an absolute free-for-all. Anyone ever covered it? I love watching the event, but I'm tired of reading Twittered quotes in print.

 

"Lance Armstrong is missing..."

And so goes the tour for Lance as the main challengers are currently breaking away from the Lance-led peloton.