L'officiel Le Tour 2009 Thread!

Bodin

GMBC
spanky cannot understand why silence lotto can't get it right? Why don't they ever seem to work together in the TDF?
Wrong people for the wrong job. No offense to Matty Lloyd, but he's another in a long history of riders who Lotto have hired to "ride with Cadel in the mountains" who won't actually be able to ride with Cadel in the mountains.
 

Dene Dweller

Likes Dirt
Wrong people for the wrong job. No offense to Matty Lloyd, but he's another in a long history of riders who Lotto have hired to "ride with Cadel in the mountains" who won't actually be able to ride with Cadel in the mountains.
Agree completely. Armstrong showed what it takes with his hill climbing posse and I don't know why Silence Lotto don't get serious and engage the same criteria, it's not rocket science. If you have an overall contender forget about the sprinters and go for the hill climbers.
 

Bodin

GMBC
I don't know why Silence Lotto don't get serious and engage the same criteria, it's not rocket science.
Well, they tried last year with Popovych, but that didn't work out so well, because he didn't seem to like being anywhere near Cadel. So it's not rocket science, but it's not easy, either...

Regardless of all of that, tonight should be a cracker of a stage, regardless of whether Cadel rides well or not. The non-Astana contenders (Sastre, Schleck, etc...) may have a crack tonight and the supposed friction between Contador and Armstrong should start coming to a head.
 

Lanky Love

Likes Dirt
"He is the most marked man in the peloton, has no team support and has no friends on other teams, so if he goes off on his own, he will be ridden down and crushed yet again."
Yeah Hincapie can go off in the bunch and no chase.But Cadel gets hunted down by two teams and told to piss off back to the peloton. You can start to see the collusion between the big 3 teams.

Hincapie is not a GC contendor. If he takes the yellow jersey at this stage, it doesn't mean much because we will probably lose it in the next 3 mountain stages or the TT. If Cadel brakes away and gets yellow, he could hold onto it right up to paris.

Really looking forward to tonight, hopefully something happens for once at the pointy end of the field.
 

thelankyman

Likes Dirt
Boonen get a boo from Aus

Freaking Boonen has pulled out with a tummy bug. Seriously he has done nothing but mean that Gerrans who won a Giro stage couldn't race.
How the hell didnt he go in one of the breakaways. He is a strong wider but seems unprepared to actually put in the hard yards.
ps wtf with SBS having a ad break during the last climb. Came back from the break and suddenly Contador was away and I was wondering where Cadel was. Idiots
 
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Bodin

GMBC
Well I found that surprisingly boring.
It's boring because it's a foregone conclusion and has been since that first acceleration Contador did about a week ago.

I was excited because I have Sastre, Schleck, Contador and Kloden in my fantasy team, so I should score a few points after a lean few days... :D
 
Geez, I know its late and all but...

I got lost there, one second theres some fella on a solo break[pink jersey] with 4-5 chasing[part of the original breakaway]

Next think I know theres an ad and then it comes back to contador attacking:confused:

What happened to the solo fella? spontanious combustion?? what about ol loud mouth spartacus who was one of the ones chasing him??

Maybe I nodded off with my eyes open....sheesh:eek:

Apart from a pathetic effort with putting that ad on and breaking up the first real climb/attack it was good to see him go, the boy has some mojo.

cheers
 

Tomas

my mum says im cool
Solo mate dropped off. Couldnt hold it (had nooooooooo chance in the world). And yes, predictable ends with Contador dominating the climb. I found it quite enjoyable!
 

dain2772

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Andy Schleck seems to think that Contador may run out of steam yet:

"He may have a… well, we saw in Paris-Nice that he was strong like this but then he had a bad day and he lost everything. That can also happen to him here"

Checked the race, and he won a stage one day by 55 seconds, then dropped over 2 minutes the next. lets hope it is more like 4mins 30!
 

Bodin

GMBC
Schleck is referring to the day that Contador forgot to eat and ran out of steam.

Contador won't make that mistake twice and Schleck (and everyone else) is thinking wishfully if they think that's going to happen.

But they have to talk about it, because it's about the only thing that can dent Contador's armour right now.
 

Spanky_Ham

Porcinus Slappius
Schleck is referring to the day that Contador forgot to eat and ran out of steam.
:eek:


That's spankys new excuse.... he forgot to eat.... well, not today... no, today (like most days) was doughnut day, with crushed chico roll topping... but he think's he may of forgotten to eat....

back in '68....


s
 

EzyLee

Likes Dirt
I got lost there, one second theres some fella on a solo break[pink jersey] with 4-5 chasing[part of the original breakaway]

Next think I know theres an ad and then it comes back to contador attacking:confused:
That was just the worst placed ad break so far. It is like watching the ashes and just as the bowler lets the ball go they cut to an ad break... then when they come back there is a completely different batter there and then getting shown no replay. It really sucked!

I was impressed with Cadel's effort last night.
 

Mattydv

Likes Bikes and Dirt
That was just the worst placed ad break so far. It is like watching the ashes and just as the bowler lets the ball go they cut to an ad break... then when they come back there is a completely different batter there and then getting shown no replay. It really sucked!
Hopefully they'll clean it up tonight for the highlights. I want to see what happened to the solo guy out the front (forgotten his name :eek:).
 

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
After that ad break I thought I'd had a sleepy moment again, but no, just a craptacular effort by SBS.

So, what do you reckon, based on last night are Cadel and Lance both gone from GC barring something unusual (eg drugs, injury)?

Neither seemed to have an answer to the other serious GC hopefuls, let alone Contador who took off into the distance. When neither went with Sastre I pretty much thought it was all over for them.
 
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