The Tour De France

[Skullring]

The Tour De France starts tomorrow. It looks like a good course this year and lots of strong contenders. Personally I hope Lance can pull off number 8. Who do you guys like?

[Autobot]

I can't wait, I will be glued to VS til its over starting tomorrow!!

[Dan Pierce]

I'll be watching as much as possible.
Lance has Contador AND Fabian Cancellara to deal with. And Fabian is on a roll this year.
dP

[Autobot]

I also like the Schleck Brothers, and one or 2 guys from Garmin that may have a chance. Should be a great race, just hope the dopers have stayed home.

[Skullring]

Overall standing from the Stage 1 prologue. 8.9 km 5.5 miles individual time trial

Cancellara had a fantastic time trial today 10 minutes flat.

Armstrong sent a warning shot across the bow of Contador.

I was surprised that Contador didn't come out stronger he is a great time trial rider.

Happy to see Leipheimer came in strong at 8th place 28 seconds back.

There is still a lot of road left until Paris.

1. CANCELLARA Fabian 13 TEAM SAXO BANK 10' 00"
2. MARTIN Tony 115 TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA 10' 10" + 00' 10"
3. MILLAR David 57 GARMIN - TRANSITIONS 10' 20" + 00' 20"
4. ARMSTRONG Lance 21 TEAM RADIOSHACK 10' 22" + 00' 22"
5. THOMAS Geraint 39 SKY PRO CYCLING 10' 23" + 00' 23"
6. CONTADOR Alberto 1 ASTANA 10' 27" + 00' 27"
7. FARRAR Tyler 53 GARMIN - TRANSITIONS 10' 28" + 00' 28"
8. LEIPHEIMER Levi 25 TEAM RADIOSHACK 10' 28" + 00' 28"
9. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 36 SKY PRO CYCLING 10' 32" + 00' 32"
10. GERDEMANN Linus 141 TEAM MILRAM 10' 35" + 00' 35"

[multimedia]

Originally Posted by Skullring

I was surprised that Contador didn't come out stronger he is a great time trial rider.

Perhaps he forgot his motor?

Cheers,
Joe

[Dan Pierce]

Hats off to Sylvain Chavanel for a great ride on the first mountain stage yesterday. Nice to see France enjoy some glory.
Today the climbs get a bit more serious though. Will Alberto use this stage to take command?
So my son and I are heading out to climb 3 decidedly less dramatic inclines and return home to enjoy stage 8.
Viva le Tour!!!
dP

[Dan Pierce]

And dat's, dat...............for Lance. After so many things going his way over his years riding the Tour lady luck and fate finally decided a different result.
However, this could also unleash a new chapter for Lance since he has nothing now to lose. Maybe a stage win or two and/ or some heroic attacks to help teammate Levy.
Andy Schleck proved there might me a kink in Contador's armor.
The Tour, as always, just gets curiouser and curiouser.
dP

[Lion]

I'm sorry to see Lance out of the hunt but he is a true champion and will/should ride to assist Levi.....
With this Tour I've never seen so many riders fall!!!

[ohfivepro]

It's been a pretty good Tour so far. The cobbled stages certainly broke up the monotony of the 1st week and the climbers already appear under pressure despite not having had a single Hors climb to contend with yet. Can't wait for tomorrow. I've taken the day off so I'll head out on the bike for a couple of hours before sitting in front of Eurosport for the rest of the day.

[Lol-x]

Schleck looks very strong for the mountains.
Evans has done well to wear the yellow jersey but the mountains might prove to be too difficult for him to hang on to the yellow jersey until the end.

[Jimbits76]

Cadel has taken the lead a little too early IMO Steve, his guys are going to have to put in a whole load of work and effort to keep him at the front for the rest of the tour. He's ridden well this year considering last year's performance.

Schleck does look like his becomming a stronger climbing with each race, he may be Contador's biggest rival. Wiggins fell away yesterday, I was urging him on.

The heatwave this summer is surely going to play a big part over the next week.

[boa2]

Great Tour thus far. Lots of drama in the first week. But it's way too hot!

Andy Schleck is riding beautifully, as is Cadel!

[Skullring]

I hated to see Lance fall so far behind on stage 8. Andy Schleck is looking very strong I was a bit surprised to see that Contador did not have the gas when Schleck broke away at the finish.

Hopefully Lance will help Levi as much as possible. Levi has always done a good job with Lance working for him he could really do very well this year.

There is a lot of road left between now and Paris. What a great sport.

[Johno]

Sometimes watching the TDF is about as exciting as watching the grass grow.

But there are occasional moments of interest.


If only Armstrong had the speed of this guy it might be different:

[boa2]

Today's stage was phenomenal!

[Skullring]

Stage 9.

What a fantastic shoot out between Contador and Schleck today. These are two cyclist that are at the very top of their game.

Simply Amazing!

[Watchdog]

Always enjoy the mountain stages!

[mtrunner]

Originally Posted by Skullring

Stage 9.

What a fantastic shoot out between Contador and Schleck today. These are two cyclist that are at the very top of their game.

Simply Amazing!

It was an awesome showdown. I cannot wait for the rest of the mountain stages to see how this all plays out. The Schleck/Contador duo is awesome for cycling.

I hope Levi Leipheimer can put things together and possibly sneak in for 3rd place and a podium finish. He sits in 6th place and if he can maintain his place in the mountains he can make up a lot of time in the time trial. He is 1:15 out of 3rd place.

[Dan Pierce]

Great stage, great to see all this unfold.
Andy Schleck is on fire but Alberto is always a threat.
dP

[Skullring]

You also have to give a lot of credit to Jens Voigt he dropped back from the lead group to help pace Andy Schleck up the final part of the climb. Jens gave his all and almost fell over with exhaustion when he finally did crack. What a fantastic effort.

I also was impressed when Gutierrez passed off a water bottle to Contador even though they are not team mates. I thought it was a great sign of respect.

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by Skullring

You also have to give a lot of credit to Jens Voigt he dropped back from the lead group to help pace Andy Schleck up the final part of the climb. Jens gave his all and almost fell over with exhaustion when he finally did crack. What a fantastic effort.

I also was impressed when Gutierrez passed off a water bottle to Contador even though they are not team mates. I thought it was a great sign of respect.

Jens Voigt has always been a class act and one of the best cyclist in the peloton. Big fan of his.
dP

[boa2]

Originally Posted by Skullring

You also have to give a lot of credit to Jens Voigt he dropped back from the lead group to help pace Andy Schleck up the final part of the climb. Jens gave his all and almost fell over with exhaustion when he finally did crack. What a fantastic effort.

I also was impressed when Gutierrez passed off a water bottle to Contador even though they are not team mates. I thought it was a great sign of respect.

You said it. It looked incredibly hot out there. The Tour has been absolutely fantastic thus far!

[Johno]

Evans don't feel so bad it could be worse.

[Jimbits76]

Poor Cadel...I feel sorry for him.

Lining up to be a great race!

J

[Lion]

The mountain stages are always the best parts of the TDF. Once they get into the Pyrenees the pretenders will be separated from the contenders!!!

[Skullring]

Stage 10.

Congratulations to Paulinho from Radio Shack on his first Tour stage win. It is good to see a breakaway actually survive all the way to the finish.

Great sprint by Paulino at the finish. Kiryienka used to be a track sprinter so I figured he would win but he missed the jump at the end by just a fraction of a second and in this sport a fraction of a second is all it takes.

I think it was 35 Celsius today or 95 Fahrenheit that is hot no matter how you measure it.

The decent into Gap was beautiful. Levi is still in good shape I hope to see him make the podium.

[Sweramic]

Followed today's stage... Not one of the better this year sadly!

Looking forward to the next one!

[Lol-x]

Why did Renshaw get ejected from the TDF???
He didn't take his hands off the handlebars....
Sure you can penalise Renshaw with a fine and disqualify him and/or his team from the win for the day, but kicking Renshaw out of the race is like sabotaging the whole HTC-Columbia team for the remainder (10 days) of the TDF.

It actually looked like Julian Dean was crossing onto Renshaw's line and that Renshaw just used his head to protect his position on the road. The judges called this 'headbutting'. Admittedly after that Renshaw did seem to deviate and impede another rider from 'attempting' to catch Cavendish, but TO GET THROWN OUT OF THE WHOLE TOUR DE FRANCE......no way, sorry no way.


The other day immediately after the stage a rider pulled the front wheel out of his bike and used that wheel to hit another rider. He got a fine Euro300 and still kept in the race.

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by Lol-x

Why did Renshaw get ejected from the TDF???
He didn't take his hands off the handlebars....
Sure you can penalise Renshaw with a fine and disqualify him and/or his team from the win for the day, but kicking Renshaw out of the race is like sabotaging the whole HTC-Columbia team for the remainder (10 days) of the TDF.

It actually looked like Julian Dean was crossing onto Renshaw's line and that Renshaw just used his head to protect his position on the road. The judges called this 'headbutting'. Admittedly after that Renshaw did seem to deviate and impede another rider from 'attempting' to catch Cavendish, but TO GET THROWN OUT OF THE WHOLE TOUR DE FRANCE......no way, sorry no way.


The other day immediately after the stage a rider pulled the front wheel out of his bike and used that wheel to hit another rider. He got a fine Euro300 and still kept in the race.

Wow, Steve, just found this out from you.
I think one headbutt is understandable [if Renshaw thought another rider was moving over to his line] however he used his head as a weapon repeatedly [3 times?] then moved left when he was supposed to hold a straight line to stop Tyler Farrar from any attempt at Cavindish.
I agree a fine would be more appropriate considering the fist fight a few days earlier. Julian Dean was very magnanimous about the whole thing when interviewed afterward, a class act.
dP