Le Tour de France thread 2009

[ericjarvis]

The head-on camera shot was quite misleading. I thought Farrar was right behind Cav, but to be honest Cav just blew him away. I've heard no mention of Petacchi as yet, or his team for that matter. Is he in it?

I don't believe so. He generally sticks to the Giro when he's not favourite to win all the sprints. Probably waiting to see whether Cavendish avoids some of the late season classics.

As for yesterday, Cancellara must've gone down the hill like a maniac, because he was fairly level at the top with Contador, Wiggins, Kreuziger, Kloeden, etc, although he did have I think Menchov as a carrot who he caught which would've helped. Kudos to Brad who really seems to have picked up the climbing bug, even if the Monaco one was only 7km or so. Unbeatable on the track for about 5 years, he's now very much holding his own on the road.

Wiggins seemed to handle the mountains well in the Giro. He'll never be a climber, but he's not getting easily blown away when it gets steep. Not sure he has time to become a GC contender though, he's been around quite a while. He has to be pretty close to his best. It also looks to me as if Millar has also been working on his climbing.

Are Astana going to blow everyone away in the Team TT? They've got Contador, Kloeden, Leipheimer and Armstrong. Saxo Bank will have to major damage limitation for when Schleck gets to the mountains.

I don't think so. It's not a happy team. I see Saxobank, Radobank and Cervelo as better bets.

 

[nick h.]

Can anyone get it online today? I can't. What if I used a proxy server to access a foreign TV site so they didn't know what country I was in?

 

[nick h.]

As you were, just noticed it's about to start on ITV4. I didn't realise they were going to do live coverage mid week.

e2a: Bollocks, it's just a repeat of yesterday's highlights.

 

[mrkikiet]

As you were, just noticed it's about to start on ITV4. I didn't realise they were going to do live coverage mid week.

it seems to be a highlights programme to me? i couldn't find any highlights on tv last night so i guess this is the catch up to yesterday.

absolutely brilliant scheduling, tapping into the cycling zetigeist.

 

[Juice Terry]

If you have cable (Virgin) I've just discovered you can watch it live on ITV4 by pressing the red button. Result.

Why the fuck they aren't putting out live for everyone I don't know. Seems to be some repeat of Boardman's hour record on the ordinary ITV4

 

[mrkikiet]

If you have cable (Virgin) I've just discovered you can watch it live on ITV4 by pressing the red button. Result.

Why the fuck they aren't putting out live for everyone I don't know. Seems to be some repeat of Boardman's hour record on the ordinary ITV4

if you have the red button you can do it, thank goodness for interactive. took me until the closing of the highlights show to discover it.

i bet putting that out was part of Boardman's contract.

 

[agricola]

Cav on a hat-trick

 

[redsnapper]

Armstrong takes the initiative and opens up a 19sec gap on Contador and third overall....great stage to watch today some really interesting manoeuvres and break-aways. Nice one Cav

 

[butchersapron]

wow. There's a team.

 

[stavros]

Saxo Bank will go for the TTT tomorrow, but their real ace will be in the mountains, because of the GC contenders, maybe only Contador can match Schleck's sudden burst of pace uphill. Armstong maybe once upon a time and with 8 men working for him, but nowadays?

 

[ericjarvis]

Don't discount the pure climbers like Garate. Then there's Sastre, who won't go with the sharp uphill bursts, but will probably still be there or thereabouts at the finish on most of the mountains.

 

[butchersapron]

Armstrong wull die as soon as mountains come. Savvy will get you thus far sure, but not further. (yes, i'm an expert on cylcing now too)

 

[ericjarvis]

I'd be surprised if Armstrong can still handle the really tough slopes in the way he used to, but then again in his day he was absolutely amazing. I suspect that even now he can still hold his own, though maybe not as consistently as before. With help from team mates I could see him making the podium. However Astana are a mess. I can't see Contador helping him at all, and I can see the team effectively splitting in two.

It's likely to be the most "political" TdF for quite a while. It may well be a race settled more in the team hotels than on the roads.

 

[fen_boy]

For those of you who are into twitter, some of the riders are twittering their experiences of the race, amongst other things.

Mark Cavendish is doing the odd tweet on markrenshaw's account at @markrenshaw1

Also

@levileipheimer
@bradwiggins
@dzabriskie
@christianvdv
@thedpate
@cadelofficial
@wegelius
@andy_schleck
@kaarvesen
@carlos_sastre
@mickrogers
@ghincapie
@bdlancaster
@laurenstendam
@stevendejongh
@koendekort
@fumybeppu

and, of course

@lancearmstrong (i got this list from his tweets)

 

[fen_boy]

Tweet from Mark Cavendish

Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me. Is he a:stupid b:crazy c:disrespectful d:all of the above? Cav

 

[gentlegreen]

Originally Posted by Cav
Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me. Is he a:stupid b:crazy c:disrespectful d:all of the above? Cav

Blimey - I'm pretty sure I noticed that - had me wondering at the time.

 

[agricola]

Good crash that from Bbox Bouygues Telecom

 

[mrkikiet]

armstrong into yellow?

 

[agricola]

armstrong into yellow?

Eurosport thought so, but they now reckon Cancellara has hung on by less than a second.

 

[Jazzz]

I have put £2 on Sastre to win. Hope he's doing ok

 

[mrkikiet]

Eurosport thought so, but they now reckon Cancellara has hung on by less than a second.

indeed he did. armstrong is quite an athlete, he seems to have taken on the team leadership role as well.

 

[stavros]

It's likely to be the most "political" TdF for quite a while. It may well be a race settled more in the team hotels than on the roads.

It's by no means the same, but is it comparable with T-Mobile in 1997? Riis was the defending champion, Ullrich ended up taking the win, and all the while they had Zabel to lead out in the sprints.

After last year's debacle where Evans lost a lot because of his weak team, why hasn't he moved or pushed to get teammates who can support him?

And is it me, or does Paul Sherwin call some cyclists "big" too much? Big Thor Hushovd, Big Jens Voight, Big Mickey Rogers, Big George Hincapie. It's quite odd, although size did help a little yesterday when Hushovd was on Cav's wheel and hence his smaller slipstream.

 

[fen_boy]

Kermit the frog on the way to today's stage

 

[ericjarvis]

Kermit the frog on the way to today's stage

Surely not. It's Kermit the Rosbif.

 

[mrkikiet]

have itv not realised that todays stage has started already?

 

[butchersapron]

Got to press the red button

edite: doesn't seem to be working yet...

 

[mrkikiet]

Got to press the red button

edite: doesn't seem to be working yet...

I am currently watching

Watch live uninterrupted coverage of the tour de france each weekday here

it's dynamic.

 

[butchersapron]

Yeah

Should come at 1 though.

 

[Jazzz]

Cavendish is now too good for his own good... which is good news for breakaways.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

i'm glad tommy voeckler(sp?) won today, have had a soft spot for him since his yellow jersey efforts a few years back.

and good on cav for the green jersey, let's hope he can maintain and that the team don't blow their chunks within the first week.