It's finally time and the story is clear, Contador vs. the Schlecks. Riis vs. Andersen. Even before it starts this TdF has delivered.
I'll watch the SportsCenter highlights for the crashes.
Interesting first stage, though I'm somewhat confused by the ruling on the 2nd crash. :hmm:
The crash was lolworthy.
Quote from: mongers on July 02, 2011, 07:04:25 PM
Interesting first stage, though I'm somewhat confused by the ruling on the 2nd crash. :hmm:
The 2nd crash was before the start was given iirc, can you be more specific? :P
Evans won with a couple of inches over Contador. Schleck loses 7 seconds on the first climbing test.
It all makes for a couple interesting weeks.
Quote from: Liep on July 05, 2011, 10:33:45 AM
Evans won with a couple of inches over Contador. Schleck loses 7 seconds on the first climbing test.
It all makes for a couple interesting weeks.
Positively exhilarating. Keep up with breathtaking reports, please.
Wiggins is out with a broken collar bone, following a crash. :(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/mobile/cycling/14086677.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/mobile/cycling/14086677.stm)
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 05, 2011, 10:00:33 PM
Positively exhilarating. Keep up with breathtaking reports, please.
I'll do just that! Cavendish won with a couple of inches over Petacchi and Leipheimer lost some time!!!
I loved today's taster of the mountains :mmm:
I liked Vinokourov's spirited assault on the leaders. :)
Quote from: mongers on July 09, 2011, 03:37:22 PM
I liked Vinokourov's spirited assault on the leaders. :)
And that American guy's earlier attack. Van Gardernengen or something Dutch-sounding.
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 09, 2011, 03:41:51 PM
Quote from: mongers on July 09, 2011, 03:37:22 PM
I liked Vinokourov's spirited assault on the leaders. :)
And that American guy's earlier attack. Van Gardernengen or something Dutch-sounding.
Yes, that was impressive, almost made it.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 05, 2011, 10:00:33 PM
Positively exhilarating. Keep up with breathtaking reports, please.
^_^
It just struck me that women's bicycling might be rather pleasant to watch. Cameras right up the bum. Is there such a thing?
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 09, 2011, 04:43:34 PM
It just struck me that women's bicycling might be rather pleasant to watch. Cameras right up the bum. Is there such a thing?
Women cycling is nice, especially if you get 'stuck' behind one. :)
Favourites are crashing left and right, Van der Broucke and Vinokourov are out now. :(
Quote from: Liep on July 10, 2011, 08:38:22 AM
Favourites are crashing left and right, Van der Broucke and Vinokourov are out now. :(
Damn, I saw the aftermath of the Vinokourov crash, could have been very nasty. :(
Another nasty crash, a car from french television drove into Flecha who then took down Hoogerland. That driver will be lynched before nightfall.
Evil French plan to take out all non- French favorites, the only way the can win the Tour?...
Quote from: Liep on July 10, 2011, 10:08:30 AM
Another nasty crash, a car from french television drove into Flecha who then took down Hoogerland. That driver will be lynched before nightfall.
Absolutely unbelievable. Took out Flecha too, but Hoogerland looked to suffer more flying into the wire.
Nooooo! First Di and now this!!
The french planned was foiled by LL Sanchez, the driver who hit Flecha will only get 2/3 of the agreed upon price.
The barbed wire being icing on the cake for poor Hoogerland.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.bimg.dk%2Fnode-images%2F350%2F4%2F300x200-c%2F4350755-cycling-fra-tdf-crash.jpg&hash=5ed68ef0ba75b98821916b1784729b4090bfa035)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg155.imageshack.us%2Fimg155%2F9280%2Fniceassh.jpg&hash=e3aaf623665e1149b1852a04a3d4284b2c6a3a2e)
Ouch...
SFW?
Just seen the video of the TV car taking out the two riders; sickening, lucky they weren't seriously hurt.
Kolobnev is the first to be caught. 9 days in, is that a new record?
Yay, mountains! The French will go nuts if Chavanel wins in the tricolore on the Bastille day.
Interesting stage today, quite a few nervous run-offs on the down-hills.
Excellent courageous ride by Jérémy Roy today, pity he got caught in the last couple of kms, but at least it was by the god of hell-fire, Arthur Thor Hushovd.
Despite what people have said about cheating in the sport, looking at the start of that misty high speed decent, many of these riders are very brave sportsmen.
Thor hit 69 mph on the descent today :blink:
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 15, 2011, 07:07:13 PM
Thor hit 69 mph on the descent today :blink:
Yes, astonishing, doesn't bear thinking about if you come of at that speed.
Incidentally if he was on the flat, he'd have to generate 3860 watts of power just to over come the air resistance.
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 15, 2011, 07:07:13 PM
Thor hit 69 mph on the descent today :blink:
If you look at this cycling aerodynamics website:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/aerodynamics1.html (http://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/aerodynamics1.html)
Assuming he's 180 lbs, very heavy for a cyclist, then to be doing 69 mph down a hill, with no head or tail wind and he's not pedalling, then the slope would be nearly 9 degree or 15.5%, scary stuff.
Great stage today, go Thor!
And Contador seems to be back, maybe the Spanish reign will not be broken after all.
Watched a little bit of a highlight show last night.
Man it drove me fucking nuts watching the fans walking around the course and pumping their fists and waving their flags right in the riders' faces.
Of all the regularly recurring situations that call for pretty girls to be selected (auto shows, Olympic medal ceremonies, boxing ring girls, etc. etc.) I think the Tour does the best job. I've never seen a flower girl up on the stage who is not a total stunner.
But WTF is the deal with the stuffed animals??
What a ride by Andy Schleck, and as the commentators here said: "We haven't seen an attack on the yellow jersey like that since 2006 back when Floyd Land.. but we'll not talk about that now".
Excellent break by Andy S. , but Cadel Evans was superb grinding out the climb and dragging the others up the 8000 ft finish. Heroic performance by Vockler, giving it his all to keep the Yellow by 8 seconds over Andy S.
Tommy :weep:
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 23, 2011, 02:45:18 AM
Tommy :weep:
From the interviews I've seen I think he's quite happy with what he's achieved, he comes across as a very modest man. He may be my favourite cyclist on the tour.
Looking forward to today's time trial.
Evans! :w00t
Thoroughly enjoyable tour, Evans was mr consistency and him hauling back those 2 minutes from A.Schleck the day before yesterday was impressive.
Hopefully we Cavendish wearing the green jersey in Paris tomorrow, probably the first British jersey for 20 odd years.
edit:
even longer than I though, Robert Millar who was King of the Mountains in 1984.
And that's the only other jersey a British cyclist has ever won on the tour.
Top Ten Moments from The Tour de France 2011, The Independent:
http://tinyurl.com/3oak6n3 (http://tinyurl.com/3oak6n3)