Tour de France 2007 thread (4 Viewers)

[nuke terrorist]

Yeah hopefully - if Cav doesn't win on Sunday that's it - chance gone, game over.
He was extremely lucky this year but won't get another chance to beat the record.
Only Van Aert or a crash can stop him I think.

 

[nuke terrorist]

Hahahahahahahahahaha
9 July 2007 post #32 on this thread:

It actually played into his hands in a way. The others weren't watching out for him as they assumed he hadn't caught up. Then when he made his move it looked like he came out of nowhere. Amazing finish.

Contrast to coolness of McEwen to the hissy fit Cavendish threw when he had a mechanical before the last climb. He has a bit to learn yet does the young lad.

Remember that stage in England

 

[flashback]

replying to this post!?

Hard not to feel for Cavendish though... would have been a nice start to his Tour career, and he would have gotten up into the gallop at least.

wait... who the fuck is this cunt?

Feel for Cavendish?
I need a shower. I'm blaming Russian hackers for breaking into my account, and posting terrible things. Repeatedly, and consistently over time. And possibly still doing it.

Feel for Cavendish. Jesus. Any chance I can buy all my old posts, and delete them in a single shot?

 

[rettucs]

replying to this post!?




wait... who the fuck is this cunt?

Feel for Cavendish?
I need a shower. I'm blaming Russian hackers for breaking into my account, and posting terrible things. Repeatedly, and consistently over time. And possibly still doing it.

Feel for Cavendish. Jesus. Any chance I can buy all my old posts, and delete them in a single shot?

haha, cancelled

 

[rettucs]

I figured that DQS didn't chase the stage today because they wanted to set up the big 'break the records on the Champs Elysee' job

I was thinking along the same lines, but maybe moreso they were keeping the powder dry. Cavendish suffered very badly in the mountains, and it might be a case of him wanting to save up whatever he has left for Paris.

 

[rettucs]

I only watched last 20-30 km of stage. I didn't see what happened early on so I thought Quickstep must have tried to control the race for Cav and it didn't work out.
No actually, Cyclingnews report on stage 19: ''DQS never looked interested in chasing ''
one more chance to beat Merckx's record before the best sprinters are back.
I wonder how many stages Morkov would have won if he had the DQS team backing him instead.

Cav is a paranoid about his bike all the time. is there a term for someone who is a hypochondriac about their bike?

when Matej Mohoric landed on his head in the Giro after crashing on a descent at high speed, he was just concussed and didn't have a mark on him. so maybe just doesn't give a fuck about the police?!
they probably listen to NWA every morning on the Bahrain Victorious bus to get psyched up! a couple of them will do gang vocals and depending where they are shout 'French' between 'fuck the' and 'police'.

Their rider from Donetsk Mark Padun who won two stages in the Dauphine was good fun though. he seemed to relish the idea of being the men's Cecile Uttrup-Ludwig

I thought when a French president arrived at the UCI more dopers might start getting caught again but nothing. only the legal people seem to have any success and the riders usually have to take the blame for everything.

EDITED several minor typos mistakes related joke paragraph about Mohoric

apparently UAE and Bahrain are into the UCI for so much money they can pretty much do whatever the fuck they want, without any risk of getting busted.

Where is the modern day Pierre Ballester, or Paul Kimmage? There doesn't seem to be anyone arsed enough to call them out on their bullshit. Hard to blame them though. We had years and years of doping scandals since 1998, and nothing has changed. There's nothing in it for anyone to take this current bunch of shams down, as there'll be another bunch hot on their heels.

 

[rettucs]

I'll give it a go this year but I expect I'll lose interest. One of the Slovenians will win. Brailsford will come out with veiled accusations about how they're doping. Thomas will probably podium.

Lefevre is a bollox. I hope for Sam's sake he has his contract sown up for next season already. I expect he probably does. But its well known that most of the contract wheeling and dealing gets done on the tour rest days. Teams aren't allowed to announce their new signings until September, so speculation is all we have to go on.

I've said it here before about Cavendish that I admire him as a sportsperson. His arrogance has contributed to his success, but hes very difficult to like on any kind of human level. Its hard enough to see him finish out the race. There's been somewhat of a soft touch to his victories this year, and even though he has finished ahead of Ewan, Ewan didn't really contest that sprint at full-pelt. Cavendish will have Morkov, so it will be interesting to see if Ewan decides that his own train is better, or whether to just jump in on the DQS train. Either way, head-to-head, I can't see Cavendish winning. He could still take a stage if the others position themselves badly, so given the team's issues with Sam, they're right to bring him.

Bora favouring Ackerman over Sam was completely understandable - a German sponsored team wanting to back a German sprinter. Even at that I found myself wanting Ackerman to lose every sprint, and there was something sweet about Sam beating him. Wherever Sam finds himself next season (and I have a horrible suspicion it will be Sky), he'll be extra motivated to beat the shit out of whoever DQS' main sprinter will be.

Was scanning the team announcements this morning and was thinking how great it would be for Sam to go to a team like Sunweb. There'd never be any arguing over what the team goals would be.

Roll on La Vuelta!

can't believe I thought Thomas would podium. Skineos will still have Carapaz up on the podium on sunday. For most teams that would be a great achievement. For Skineos, with the millions they pump into their team (probably the biggest spenders of any protour team), its a spectacular failure.

 

[nuke terrorist]

replying to this post!?




wait... who the fuck is this cunt?

Feel for Cavendish?
I need a shower. I'm blaming Russian hackers for breaking into my account, and posting terrible things. Repeatedly, and consistently over time. And possibly still doing it.

Feel for Cavendish. Jesus. Any chance I can buy all my old posts, and delete them in a single shot?

Give yourself a break - Cav had only just turned pro ! He had came almost from nowhere over the two previous years.
I have a term I use a lot - B.C. 'before Cavendish' to describe where British cycling cam from Over the last 15 years

In 2007 I thought Wiggins was honest and dead sound. I think Vino beat Hincapie and Wiggo's time in the 2007 Tour prologue by over 10 secs and then incredibly Cancellara beat Vino's time by over 10 secs to take the win! Poor Brad! Dodgy George and Wiggo (3rd and 4th) got beat by 23 seconds by Cancellara.

Nearly all my early posts on this thread had a strong 'anti-doping info' emphasis but I never dreamed where Brad would end up.
Then near the end of the 2007 Tour Wiggo's Cofidis team was removed from the race after Cristian Moreni was positive for testosterone gel, a then fashionable product.
The way to use it was to put on testicles but Moreni made a balls of it and put it on his arm instead.
Wiggo gave a press conference a few days after where he was really depressed and hugely angry with Moreni by far the strongest reaction from any of the Cofidis riders (Moncoutie didn't start that Tour).

Geraint Thomas was 21 in 2007 and got a start in the Tour 'cause it started in London. He was the youngest rider in the race - I think he finished second last.

Also Thumpster nofriendo had Contador at 30-1 to win!
I was surprised Contador was so underated coming into that race he was already well on his way even at that point.

Maurico Soler's ride the day Rasmussen got kicked off the race was amazing.
He knew the realistically the only way to get the mountains jersey in Paris was to go in a break on the Final summit finish and win top points on all the cols and even then he needed to finish in the top 5 on last climb.
He did the job until the last climb which he started with a small gap and only about 30% up he was passed Rasmussen and Contador and then by 3 others riders.
Soler looked finished... but wait!
He ground his way back past one rider and then another! Finished 4th after being in the break.
Little did he know Rasmussen was going to get the boot that night anyway but he had won the jersey on the road.

Very sad end to Mauricio Soler's career - He had just won a stage of the Tour de Suisse and then next day he ended up in coma after colliding spectator.
His memory and cognitive skills were badly affected and he couldn't go home to Colombia for over 6 months.

Wonder how he's doing now?

 

[flashback]

Mauricio Soler

He doesn't appear to be doing too badly. He's still got the facial paralysis, but he's getting back out on the bike seemingly?

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He mentioned that this race isn't far from the home (?), his home? so I suppose he's knocking around Bogota. He speaks fairly fluently, but also ever so slightly haltingly like someone that's learned to speak again. Unless he was doing that on purpose to help out non spanish speakers.

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[nuke terrorist]

feature from Colombian TV on Mauricio Soler from a few years ago.
he and his wife are interviewed.

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on the first mountain stage in 2007 with the stage win long gone to Linus Gerdemann, a tall Colombian (whose big shoulders didn't make him look like a climber) broke out of the peloton which coasted in to get himself 4th place.
''what was that about? what a wasted effort'' - I thought.
Soler did however get some mountain points.
a few days later day I understood - he got in the break and won in Briancon taking the mountains jersey.

oh the stage I mentioned earlier where he defended the mountains jersey on the final mountain stage on the Aubisque finish in 2007:
Soler actually finished fifth (not fourth - my mistake) on the stage won by Chicken Rasmussen the same day he was later removed from the race. so Soler was upgraded to fourth.

 

[Cormcolash]

The way to use it was to put on testicles but Moreni made a balls of it

HE SURE DID!

 

[Cormcolash]

YAAAAAA FUCK CAV!!

 

[flashback]

yeah, surprised to see that.

DQS looked nowhere in sight...

 

[nuke terrorist]

DQS must have known Cav was completely knackered for the last week otherwise they blew two great chances today and Friday.
equalling Eddy on 34 stages and an easy green jersey after very rarely coming near winning a race for three years? he'll take that.

Sam or Caleb Ewan (pending avoiding the crashes) would have won at least 5 stages and green against such poor sprinting talent.
by the end of the Tour Van Aert was the only top class guy there distantly followed by Philipsen and Colbrelli and Matthews.



remember in 2008 Nico looked like winning a Vuelta stage ? it was his breakthrough race (13th overall) where he lost a two man sprint to Imanol Erviti after getting too confident and taking it up too early?

Erviti has spent his entire career with his local team Movistar and after winning a second Vuelta stage hasn't won a race for ten years. BUT...

at 37 looking at his career results today is amazing:
he's started 26 grand tours and only quit one Tour out of 13 Vueltas, 12 Tours and one Giro.
and
he's finished 12 Ronde van Vlaanderen's of out 16 starts
and
13 Roubaix finishes in 15 starts.

it says he's from Pamplona but ''are you Flemish, are Flemish, Imanol are you Flemish in Disguise?!''

three of the Movistar DS's Vicente Garcia-Acosta, Arrieta and Lastras (now with the Movistar women's set up) were crack domestiques themselves with Unzue's squad for long years.

he just finished 67th in the Tour today so maybe Matteo Tosatto should be worried about his record of finishing 28 of his 34 grand tours.

 

[magicbastarder]

The great thing now is we can close this thread and start a 'tour de France 2008' thread for next year

 

[rettucs]

The great thing now is we can close this thread and start a 'tour de France 2008' thread for next year

I think there's a 2012 one somewhere but we all refused to use it.

 

[rettucs]

Sam or Caleb Ewan (pending avoiding the crashes) would have won at least 5 stages and green against such poor sprinting talent.
by the end of the Tour Van Aert was the only top class guy there distantly followed by Philipsen and Colbrelli and Matthews.

Totally. Sam would have probably taken 2 more stages than Cavendish did, as well as green.

 

[nuke terrorist]

speaking of Quickstep sprinters, Fabio Jakobsen was back winning on Wednesday on Tour de Wallonie stage 2

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great. his recovery has been amazing. I didn't think he'd ever get back to this level.
another guy who would have been selected ahead of Cav all things being equal

 

[rettucs]

speaking of Quickstep sprinters, Fabio Jakobsen was back winning on Wednesday on Tour de Wallonie stage 2

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great. his recovery has been amazing. I didn't think he'd ever get back to this level.
another guy who would have been selected ahead of Cav all things being equal

great to see him recovered. Hes a bit of a dick though.

 

[nuke terrorist]

great to see him recovered. Hes a bit of a dick though.

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