Can't wait - should be awesome. I can't remember a Tour in the last ten years with so many legit. contenders. Armstrong, Ullrich, Mayo, Hamilton, Heras - it could be any of them (and I'm probably forgetting some names). Zubeldia, Basso, Simoni, and Leipheimer are also contenders. Too bad the mountain stages are for nearly two weeks.
Yuck. Why is the prologue in Luik this year.
It's the ugliest, most poluted, stinkiest town in this part of the world.
So sad.
It's the ugliest, most poluted, stinkiest town in this part of the world.
So sad.
*SPOILER*
Armstrong is second... but he put a distance between him and Ullrich in a short time trial... uh oh.
Armstrong is second... but he put a distance between him and Ullrich in a short time trial... uh oh.
Don Vito Corleone
Elite
- Feb 10, 2000
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Originally posted by: Fausto
Damn...check out Tyler's new TT machine. :Q
I wouldn't know whether to ride it or hump it.
It's definitely sleek, and the least-hideous BMC I have seen. In general I think those bikes look awful, and the word on the streets is that Tyler will be riding a "prototype" in the Tour that is probably a Parlee in BMC paint and decals.
I read this in a Tour article online. I wonder if they'll even keep track of the time next year.
I saw Armstrong without his shirt on on OLN channel surfing earlier today...it's safe to say you're wrong.
DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
That statement might be somewhat true for flat riding... but on steep hills, upper body strength is fairly important. As far as I'm concerned, my arms get a decent workout when I'm sprinting 2 or 3 miles uphill. (the longest ascent I have near me)
Originally posted by: Nitemare
Originally posted by: bR
*SPOILER*
Armstrong is second... but he put a distance between him and Ullrich in a short time trial... uh oh.
Wow and he is not even in the mountains yet
How many seconds behind?
According to the site, TWO seconds. third place is 9 seconds back. that's a helluva good start...
Originally posted by: Nitemare
Originally posted by: bR
*SPOILER*
Armstrong is second... but he put a distance between him and Ullrich in a short time trial... uh oh.
Wow and he is not even in the mountains yet
How many seconds behind?
Ullrich is 15 seconds behind... thats not bad at all considering the small stage...
Don Vito Corleone
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Those new foam-reinforced TT helmets look awful IMO. Not surprisingly (since the Giro engineers, like so many others, fuss over him like a newborn panda at the zoo), Lance's looks the best, but some of them, especially the Euskatel team helmets, look like hell. I'm all for rider safety, but I don't recall a pro cyclist ever sustaining a serious head injury during a TT.
Of the Euskatel riders, I only saw Mayo's prologue, and his helmet just looked like a standard road racing helmet. What where the rest of them riding?
And how come Euskatel only has 8 riders starting? Cyclingnews.com kept talking about the '188 riders in the Tour' which didn't make sense if each of the 20 teams was allowed 9 riders (20x9=189, not 188), so I checked out the official start list at www.letour.com, and Euskatel only started 8!! My brother said they've only got 9 on the whole team, and one of them was injured, so they only had 8 guys to start. That can't be right. Anyone heard anything else?
Ok, in the Prologue, they're using a "closed" wheel on the back. Why don't they use such wheels in general?
Don Vito Corleone
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Full disc wheels are heavier than spoked wheels, and quite vulnerable to cross winds, which can be treacherous at the kinds of speeds they acheive in descents on mountain stages. They also have a harsher ride than spoked wheels, which is unwelcome on longer stages.
US Postal is looking VERY good today, but I've been impressed with Phonak as well. Let's hope USPS can keep it up. Mayo seems to have dropped a lot back in that crash as well; that could prove difficult for him to come back from.
Rob
Rob
Man, did you guys see that crash in the final sprint yesterday? Kirsipuu (the a-hole who swerved across all the riders and took out the two that fell) should have been relegated. That was ridiculous.
Yep. Picture riding a road bike with 22mm tires over cobbles about the size/shape of a loaf of bread. They literally beat the crap out of you.
From cyclingnews.com
Doesn't sound like much, I know, but the real action will be before the cobbles. Since the cobbled sections are very narrow and there may be crashes, every team will fight to get their "protected riders" onto the cobbles first so they are less likely to get caught behind a crash and lose time. It's almost like watching the leadout for a big sprint...total mayhem.
Armstrong and others basically just want to stay out of trouble today.
Am I a prophet or what? Mayo got fuxored today via a crash on the cobbles; as soon as word got out that he was dropped from the main group, the teams of the remaining contenders put the hammer down and took four minutes out of him. :Q
Good example of how inter-team alliances can occur from time to time. All the teams whose "main guy" was still in the front group realized they'd have one less person to worry about in the mountains if they left Mayo in the dust.
Don Vito Corleone
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Huh - I will look forward to watching the coverage. I am just catching the tail end of today's "Cyclysm" and they are interviewing Sheryl Crow. :roll:
That's a shame about Mayo - I can't help but feel bad that he was knocked out of serious GC competition by a crash - this is one Tour that clearly favors a pure climber like him, and I could have imagined him as a viable contender, notwithstanding his rather mundane all-Basque team. I guess that's the way it goes . . .
That's a shame about Mayo - I can't help but feel bad that he was knocked out of serious GC competition by a crash - this is one Tour that clearly favors a pure climber like him, and I could have imagined him as a viable contender, notwithstanding his rather mundane all-Basque team. I guess that's the way it goes . . .
Gah...fscking human-interest crap.
Oh well, at least we get a LOT less of that with OLN than we did with the networks.
Adrian Karsten....*aaaachchchch....Pt00ey!!*
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