Official Tour De France thread 2006. (1 Viewer)

[brianoak]

one of these lads supposedly

and boonen claims he was electrocuted

hahaha he was shking his fist at Mc Kewen aswell like it was his fault he nearly crashed into Mc Kewens back wheel.

 

[error type 11]

I heard Leoos is planning on using this technique over the coming months. However, instead of replacing the original blood, he will introduce a mix of buckfast and lucozade. time will tell if this improves his performance in any major sporting event.....

Well seeing as the only sporting event I partake in these days is the 15 yard dash to the local shop to get ten fags before it shuts at 9pm every night I expect a slender improvement in my performance using this unproven technique. Although I do expect an extensive trial period to get the checks and balances right as well as the potential extra benefits an extended trial test of nordie bucky would bring. Ill keep ye posted

 

[joematic]

"Voigt, who is leading the way now with four other riders by more than five minutes, has an interesting list of likes and dislikes. He's a big beer fan and doesn't "trust guys who want to sit down for a glass of wine". And, if he were in a band, he'd pick Metallica."

good work. how come my beer drinking antics don't lead to a pro career.

 

[joematic]

Jaysus!
"
Another crash with 54 km to go took out Davitamon's Fred Rodriguez and Rabobank's Erik Dekker. Both abandoned the race immediately, and although Rodriguez didn't break any bones, he suffered heavy concussion. Dekker suffered concussion and serious facial injuries: abrasions, facial trauma, a contusion, a ripped upper lip, as well as a couple of broken teeth. He was kept unconscious on Tuesday night so that his face could be cleaned.
"

Valverde out as well with a broken collarbone.

 

[snap-apple]

Valverde out as well with a broken collarbone.

Really feel sorry for this guy, it's so open this year now with the big guns pulled out, sorta makes it exciting after the one-sided Armstrong show for the last few years. But hard to look beyond Popovych and Hincapie with the strength of their team. Have to admit I only tune in for le tour so have no idea of relative form this year. Still, I have a couple weeks off starting on the 17th so hoping to catch the whole of the Alpine stages. The Thursday 13th pyrenees stage looks like the one that'll sort out the men from the boys, the previous day has a HC and Cat1 but a long ride into the finish so there'll be some coming back together.

Riddle me this though, *IF* the likes of Ullrich etc. were to be found guilty, doesn't that make Armstrong's supposedly clean achievements even more unbelievable/awesome, assuming that the blood spinning/doping has been going on for a while? If Armstrong was clean all those years he's surely one of the greatest sportsmen ever? Personally, I have my doubts but we'll probably never know now. Even if he wasn't clean, he was still awesome amongst a crowd of cheats I guess.

 

[inspector horse]

Really feel sorry for this guy, it's so open this year now with the big guns pulled out, sorta makes it exciting after the one-sided Armstrong show for the last few years. But hard to look beyond Popovych and Hincapie with the strength of their team. Have to admit I only tune in for le tour so have no idea of relative form this year. Still, I have a couple weeks off starting on the 17th so hoping to catch the whole of the Alpine stages. The Thursday 13th pyrenees stage looks like the one that'll sort out the men from the boys, the previous day has a HC and Cat1 but a long ride into the finish so there'll be some coming back together.

Riddle me this though, *IF* the likes of Ullrich etc. were to be found guilty, doesn't that make Armstrong's supposedly clean achievements even more unbelievable/awesome, assuming that the blood spinning/doping has been going on for a while? If Armstrong was clean all those years he's surely one of the greatest sportsmen ever? Personally, I have my doubts but we'll probably never know now. Even if he wasn't clean, he was still awesome amongst a crowd of cheats I guess.

yeh the 13th has the Tourmalet, Aspin and the Peyresourde affectionately known as the ring of death. The magazines have the 19th july down as the queens stage with 2 hors category and a 1st and 2nd thrown in aswell and its the day after the Alpe d'huez(but this was obviously written before all of the past weeks events), im supposed to be looking for a proper job but i think thats gonna have to wait

 

[inspector horse]

and now for a round of guess what sean "tuuar da fwaaance" kelly is looking at when he's not speaking

[MEDIA]mms://vipeurosport.yacast.net/eurosport/2006/07/05/Kelly_Bruyneel_com_27667_4_18_0_320x240.wmv[/MEDIA]

 

[nuke terrorist]

a few thoughts on the race format so far - having four stages in a row of over 200 km stages 2 to 5 is hardly encouraging clean cycling. remember the vueltas a few years ago that had no stages over 160 km or so? the race was widely praised yet they decided to go back to regular length stages, which was a mistake. i think there should be no stages over 180 km as even on mountain stages all the action happens in the last 50 km regardless of the length of the stage. the vueltas i mentioned had much better racing in smaller packages - if a stage if 50 km longer then thats 50 km extra that not much is happening.

having a time trial before the mountains is never desirable. some the last riders off on the saturday one will be Boonen, McEwen + Freire who will make no impact and in the past when breakaways have succeeded it has meant a lot riders who irrevelant to final GC going off last in such TT's. never mind it not helping climbers.

 

[IFF]

This months procycling has both Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich on the front

i thought the Vuelta has always been the most exciting grand tour (apart from last year whent he Giro was the most exciting). the one you're referring to was 2000 was it? where Roberto Heras won for Kelme

that was just a brilliant race i seem to remember (i'm probably thinking of the wrong year)

sure notice yesterday's stage, at 40 km, the lead was down to 2 minutes while they were only caugth with 3or 4 km left, not because of Brard, Geslin and Backstedt trying harder but because the peloton doesn't want to close the gap too early

 

[nuke terrorist]

yeah IFF I remember you praising that vuelta format before i think there was at least two vueltas with short stages, 2001 was one of them.
according to www.cyclingnews.com Floyd Landis announced on the rest day on monday that he is having a hip replacement operation after the tour !!
he broke his femur in january 2003 and after several operations it's now wrecked. amazing - he must be in terrible pain on the bike ?
this is uncharted territory for a pro cyclist and there is no guarantee he'll be able to race again afterwards.
EDIT:
I find it annoying that magazines think interviewing the same riders over and over such as Ulrich and Basso is interesting. for years I usually skip over interviews with these guys, i mean i've heard it all before.

 

[IFF]

i think cycle sport for about 4 in 5 issues in a row, they had lance armstrong on the front in 2004.

like even in a dutch special, they had armstrong on the front at the end of that year. and that year, the only mention of cunego's giro win in the next 2 issues was once in the news part and once on the letters pages. they didn't even feature the results of that giro in the results part

i prefer procycling, hence the reason i subscribe to it

but they are very repetitive, both of them.

anyway, wasn't it a broken femur, beloki sustained on that infamous crash in 2003. he was never the same again though then again he was getting on in years. he would have been in his 30's then

and then ludovic turpin (ag2r) btroke his femur during the dauphine libere this year, the day after winning a mountain stage. i think iban mayo was second that day but he didn't realise turpin was ahead so he celebrated the win

magnificent solo win by his teammate calzati on sunday also,. first thing he does after winning, affirm his allegiance to italy in the world cup final as he's of italian parentage

i could be wrong

wow i can really go on and on

 

[nonemoreblack]

Just found out I'm gonna be in Carcassonne tomorrow just as the Tour is passing right outside the airport when I arrive. Then the next day I'm staying near Beziers and the Tour is passing right through the next town! Its going to be a good holiday.

I'll post some picks if I get some

 

[Cormcolash]

I expect you to stand right in front of the lead rider as he cycles up the mountain, and hold your ground until he hits you and crashes to the ground, forcing him to lose the race. I want to see some pictures of that.

 

[snap-apple]

That sorted the men from the boys. And Team Discovery channel wanna discover some new training methods hehe. Hincapie lost over 20 mins. Insane. Rasmussen nowhere on the last climb, I really thought he'd be up there today, although I guess he put all his energy into driving it along for Menchov, great teamwork by Rasmussen and Boogard there. Can't figure out why T-Mobile went nuts on the second last climb today, they suffered for it on the final climb - terrible tactics from them yesterday as well although Honchar was never going to hold onto yellow for long. Can't wait for next Tuesday's and Wednesday's stages. Landis looked very impressive though and with a minute's advantage it'll take something special to break him. He played it very cool today. Seems like a sound punter too - not half as much of the robot Lance was.

 

[IFF]

That sorted the men from the boys. And Team Discovery channel wanna discover some new training methods hehe. Hincapie lost over 20 mins.

lets not just single out Hincapie for his bad performance, all the discovery riders had a bad day.

savoldelli was even worse then hincapie. maybe they'll resort to their lame giro excuse of pollen

i personally though euro sport covered the highlights badly yesterda by only showing 4km of the last climb and way too much of the earlier climbs. it's left the question of what happened to de la fuente, voeckleur, cunego and arroyo who were all out in front at some time or other

atleast i won't have to worry about the highlights next week as i'll be at home during the day

 

[snap-apple]

i personally though euro sport covered the highlights badly yesterda by only showing 4km of the last climb and way too much of the earlier climbs.

yar, 30 mins just isn't enough to cover a mountain stage like that - i (sadly enough) recorded the whole thing 'beo' and spent 2 hours fast forwarding through the stagnant bits and watching the exciting bits but got to see how it all played out. that stage was like looking into the crystal ball of who we'll be watching in the lead group for the next few years. weird not seeing armstrong/ullrich/basso/vinokourov there. i really enjoyed vinokourov's attacking approach last year, real shame he couldn't just hop onto t-mobile for the tour

 

[joematic]

strange stage today. the break comes in 30 minutes ahead of the bunch and Piereio is now in yellow.
I got to see some of the action on ITV3. the bunch didn't seem interested. They left it up to Phonak to chase and they didn't seem to fussed either.

 

[snap-apple]

I'd say Phonak just didn't want the responsibility of chasing down break-aways etc. so they've let Pereiro have the yellow until the Alps when Landis should get it back, or one of the other favourites if he's not on song. Pereiro is unlikely to finish in the first group on Tuesday and Wednesday - both tough maountain top finishes. I was more surprised to see Popovych allowed to get back into contention. It's still anyone's though - roll on Tuesday.

 

[nuke terrorist]

the spanish riders look finished then - pereiro strikes !

nice win for Fedrigo today he was national champ last year but took some stick for not doing much while wearing the jersey. Bouygues Telecom have ( previously know as Brioche la Boulanger / Bonjour ) led the way with a strong record against doping since 2001. the team is a young one consisting of entirely french riders who mostly turned pro with the team and apart from former festina riders Brochard and Rous the other riders don't know that era of french cycling.
3 stage wins makes it the best french tour for years,
the crash with Canada ,Verbrugge and Kessler was horrible and the former two are badly messed up the most carnage i've seen in one crash for a long time.

for Ullrich things are going from worse to to worser. the newspaper Suddendeutsche Zeitung has printed what it alleges was his doping regime for the 2005 tour set by Dr. Fuentes and T-Mobile are not happy that he and Oscar Sevilla have not supplied DNA samples they are asked for in the time given to compare with the blood samples found in Fuentes' lab.

 

[IFF]

all the french teams but francaises de jeux have got a win now. that was actually the teams' first ever win in the tour de france i think

by team, i mean them and their two previous sponsors, bonjour and bla brioche la boulangere. in 6 tours, they didn't win a stage