Fignon's book made a subtle mention of the nation's post-Franco success in sport. As for the tennis player, you;d suspect him just by looking at him...and his injury periods.
I appreciate this is a TdF thread, but awful news from the Giro d'Italia: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/09/wouter-weylandt-giro-ditalia
this is absolutely horrific. i saw the immediate aftermath on eurosport and it didn't look good. To compound the tragedy his first child is due to be born in September.
This may be of some interest: http://road.cc/content/news/35792-l...dex-doping-all-198-riders-2010-tour-de-france L'Equipe has published what it says is a UCI document assessing the blood passports of the riders who entered the 2010 Tour. All 198 of them, ranked from 0 to 10, least to most suspicious.
Anyone watch the Giro today? That last 10km on the Monte Zoncolan was truly evil. Contador didn't look too troubled and leads, although it could all be worthless after the CAS meeting.
Unusual to see Contador beaten by one of the other favourites on a climb. Still, being marginally the second best on his worst day and easily the best on most of them is more than enough to win the Giro. The likes of Rujano or Anton can compete with him once in a while, when they're feeling great, but the only guy who can nearly match him over a three week race is Andy Schleck. And yes, he shouldn't be there at all and hopefully the CAS will do the right thing.
Schleck's two and a half years younger than Berti too, so has more scope for improvement. He also has the ultimate domestique in Frank. If Berti does survive to the TdF, it'll be great to watch.
Bloody hell, Xavier Tondo has been killed in some freak accident involving a garage door falling on him.
Valverde got to keep his Vuelta while under investigation so I'd not be so quick to think Contador won't do the same. On a general note - surely the Giro is a big enough race to warrant its own thread?
Duffield and Kelly on the Eurosport stream I got seemed to say that he could get stripped of the Giro win if he loses, so I'm only going on what they said. I think it would be big enough to get its own thread if it was on free-to-air, as it should be, but there possibly won't be enough people watching. As I said, I was lucky enough to find a good stream but it'd be so much better if the Beeb or whoever bought the rights, or Eurosport went Freeview.
no cycling thread would be complete without you bemoaning the lack of terrestrial cycling action Stavros - go back to 2003 and you'll see its something you've mentioned *more than once*
Eurosport's current cycling coverage is by far the most comprehensive anglophone cycling coverage ever. Terrestrial broadcasters would never just put on hours of cycling day after day throughout most of the year.
Still nothing compared to Eurosport. Last week on my day off I was able to watch Live Giro in the aftrnoon, Live Tour of California in the evening, and highlights of the day's stage in the Giro after that. They show all of the classics live and highlights, the tour of Basque, Giro, Vuelta, and TdF all live and highlights. And no Liggett to be seen or heard. Worth the cable subscription on its own.
It's nice to be recognised. I'm still right, even if I have discovered streaming in the last year or so.
I enjoyed today's stage, especially how Nibali just wiped out a 30 second deficit on the descent in a couple of minutes.
I find myself watching the expert descenders with a mixture of admiration and dread. Been some scary descents this year.
While the experts do stuff that looks absolutely terrifying, they are probably in less danger than the less expert guys descending in the peloton. The main field is still going down at speeds which are borderline insane and not all of them are particularly gifted at it. And if you are descending in a group, you aren't just depending on your own skills, you are depending on the rider in front of you not making a mistake and the guy in front of him. Russ Downing, the Sky rider, was flipped off his bike down a ravine today because the rider in front made an error on a descent. He landed in a tree, climbed back up the slope and carried on and promptly crashed again two corners later. He was extremely lucky. Wouter Weylandts actually was a good descender who had a freak accident on a descent which wasn't regarded as particularly difficult. The Crostis descent, which was taken out of the course in the wake of Weylandts death, on the other hand was tempting fate. Contador said that he'd been driven down it in a car and even then it scared the shit out of him. And while Contador has his faults, cowardice isn't one of them.
All very true. Doesn't make it *look* any less terrifying. Anyway, Wiggins in yellow in the Dauphine.
Well done to Bradley for winning the overall at the Dauphiné. - I hope he's going to be able to stay closer to Contador and Schleck this time 'round at the Tour. Can't see him win it though.
His fourth place was a fluke. There are simply too many people who are capable of dropping him like a stone in the mountains and there's not enough Time Trialling for him to make up the difference. Top 10 is a possibility though.
You're probably right. Is Andy Schleck fit enough this time to win it? - I'm not too confident after his showing in the Tour of California (I know - he wasn't in it to win it) and how today's stage at the Tour de Suisse went (even though it wasn't a mountain finish). What do you guys think?
