Tour de France update and discussion thread: Because it involves bikes. (long post)

[DaveK]

@Mark Blacknell 5982 wrote:

Convenient time to post this . . .

I haven’t watched today so DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING FOR ThE LOVE OF GOD. Okay now I can’t follow this thread anymore.

[DaveK]

@DaveK 5978 wrote:

I don’t agree – I think one of them has to be sacrificed and they’re not willing to do that. If one breaks away and the other stays behind it’s perfect but they both want to win, and that can’t happen. I think it’ll take them both down. Not to mention I don’t think either one has the legs to win it this year. Now Contador… he’s improving every day and he hasn’t shown his cards yet.

Just caught the late replay – damn I called this pretty well. Also THOR SMASH!!!

[PotomacCyclist]

Contador did look better, but Cadel Evans continues to impress. Voeckler is still hanging around, though his lead slipped a bit. Phil Liggett casually mentioned last week that Voeckler has the biggest tongue in cycling. Not because of anything he said in interviews, but because he sticks his tongue out and licks his lips repeatedly when he’s working hard on a tough climb. Lance Armstrong tweeted that he now thinks Voeckler has a chance at holding on, but other commentators still think he’s a long shot to win. Though I’m not French, it would be cool to see an underdog like him win the title.

Andy Schleck is not looking so great. We’ll see how he does in the hard Alpine stages this week.

I’ve been watching most of the stages, especially the mountain stages, but I haven’t recorded any of them. But I’m going to record all of the remaining ones on the DVR. I get very inspired to ride and train when I watch the tough mountain stages of the Tour de France. (While the final sprints in the flat stages are fun to watch, the early part of those days are kind of boring. No one attacks much on those routes.)

As of today, I have to agree that Cadel Evans has the title for the taking. Contador will challenge him but he has a significant time gap behind Evans. I don’t know if Contador could drop Evans on an attack this year. Unless Andy Schleck was lulling the other top riders into a false sense of security the other day, he doesn’t look that good. Not good enough to win. We’ll find out pretty quickly if Voeckler has any chance at all to hang on. Even if he does, he’s supposed to be a weaker time trialist. That will hurt him on Saturday.

[PotomacCyclist]

Thursday’s stage is likely to decide the General Classification winner. Or at least go a long way to doing so. Stage 18 will include three HC climbs, or “hors categorie”. These “beyond categorization” climbs are the toughest of the toughest. Even most of these elite riders will break on the mountains.

Tune in for some serious mountain racing action. And some seriously fast descents.

[JimF22003]

Oh, I would have loved to ride that twisty narrow road out of town and back to end yesterday’s stage!

I’ve got a long day ahead of me, and dangerous sources of information to avoid, if I want to be able to enjoy today’s stage on my DVR tonight. Wish me luck

[PotomacCyclist]

*** SPOILERS FROM THURSDAY’S STAGE *** (Don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet!)

Well, Andy Schleck revealed his cards today. He was saving himself for today, and tomorrow. Contador is down but not quite out. He’s on life support. There’s still an outside chance that he heads out on a breakaway tomorrow but given his performance today, I just can’t see it. Plus he has to pick up time on all of the other favorites. I’d give him about a 5% chance of winning at this point.

Surprisingly, Thomas Voeckler is STILL in the yellow jersey! That guy’s performance has been impressive. Every day he downplays his chances, saying that he can’t keep up with the “heads of state”, but he does. He lost time the last two days but not enough to lose the overall lead. It’ll be tough for him to hang on tomorrow, but that’s what everyone said before today’s stage.

I think it would be great for Andy Schleck to win, but I have to admit that I’m now pulling for Voeckler to win in a huge upset. I’m not confident that he can do it, but there’s still a chance. Andy Schleck might be worn out from his hard effort today. Can he go off in another breakaway tomorrow? It will be tough. But even if Voeckler hangs on tomorrow, he may have problems in the time trial on Saturday. That’s supposed to be his weakness. Schleck isn’t the best time trialist either but he might be better than Voeckler.

Great stage today. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

[DaveK]

I’m still pulling for Cadel to win but Andy erased all the doubts today. Amazing performance.

[Jsnyd]

Voeckler almost had me out of my seat literally cheering for him as I was sitting in my living room by myself. Yellow certainly does something to a rider. There have been a number of riders this tour that can really inspire and Tommy V is one of them. Schleck is a beast and I am excited to see him scale the mountains. He will most likely take the jersey after today if he has a repeat performance.

[Dirt]

Everyone pretty much pushed themselves to and beyond their limits yesterday….. except Frank. I wonder who is going to go on the attack today?

How about the green jersey race?? Cav gets busted 20 points for finishing outside the time limit and Rojas is back close to the jersey. It prolly won’t last for Rojas, but we can always hope.

[Dirt]

The Schleck double-whammy really is hammering Cuddles quite a bit. It is going to make for a great last few days of the tour.

[PotomacCyclist]

Contador finally made a run, but it’s too little, too late. He’s still far behind the other top contenders. Even though he’s a great time trialist, tomorrow’s stage isn’t long enough to pick up that kind of time on Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans. The race is STILL wide open. It’s really going to come down to the wire. Schleck has the lead but Evans is the better time trialist. Evans is good enough that Contador doesn’t have a realistic shot at winning his 4th title.

Voeckler made a good run but the Alpe d’Huez was just too much for him. It’s unlikely that he’ll even get a podium spot now. I was hoping that he would have been able to salvage a podium spot, at the very least. He is not considered to be a great time trialist so he won’t be catching up to Evans and even Schleck. Contador might have a shot at the podium, but not first place, unless something really goes wrong with Schleck and Evans (bike mechanical problems, leg cramps).

Cavendish is getting crushed by the mountains. I think he missed the time cutoff again today. But I think Rojas also missed the cutoff so Cavendish may still be in the green jersey.

Just one real stage left, with Sunday being largely ceremonial. I don’t really get that. Why is the last stage of a hard-fought sports competition a ceremonial one? If they want it to be a coronation ride, then just make it an untimed easy 20-mile ride into Paris. No need for the charade of timing that stage if no one is going to compete that day. That’s my one criticism of the Tour de France. It’s like having the 9th inning of the 7th game of the World Series being ceremonial, or the final two minutes of the Super Bowl be a celebration instead of a dogfight.

[Dirt]

Cool day in the tour today.

[DaveK]

@Dirt 6265 wrote:

Cool day in the tour today.

+1

Maybe it’s a cleaner sport making for closer racing, who knows, but this year’s Tour has been more exciting than any in recent memory. Another great stage of racing today.

I’ll just leave this here –

[Dirt]

The tour starts tomorrow. LOL

[PotomacCyclist]

Contador really doesn’t like it when the spectators get close. He did the same thing last year, punching at a guy who was too close to him.

By the way, I came across this freakish picture of George Hincapie’s legs. Well, more like a picture of his incredible varicose vein problem.

WARNING: Not for sensitive viewers. It’s not a Photoshopped picture but it might be disturbing to some people.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-5/photos/180969

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