Just 8 days to go before the start of the 2012 Tour in Liege:
http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html (http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html)
I'll be cheering on Bradley Wiggins, who has a chance and if he completes it on the Sunday afternoon 22nd July, will have just 6 day* before taking part in in the Olympic road race on the following Saturday, 28th. :cool:
edit:
* actually it's only something like 138 hour between the end of the 3500 km tour and the start of the other.
Ah yes, it's banana hammock time again.
I'm not going to follow the race, of course, but I'd appreciate posting any video of NASCAR-style pile-ups. Spokes and Speedos everywhere.
It's started today with the Prologue in Leige, I shall watch the highlights this evening.
Elio de Rupo's apparently taken to referring to Bradley Wiggins as the 'Belgian-born' Wiggins :lol:
Quote from: Sheilbh on June 30, 2012, 10:10:18 AM
Elio de Rupo's apparently taken to referring to Bradley Wiggins as the 'Belgian-born' Wiggins :lol:
It's only fair, as that's a classic British tabloid past-time; Oh and many Irish born Irishmen throughout history seem to be co-opted as British and even English. :bowler:
Mørkøv just secured himself the mountain jersey, yay Denmark!
Quote from: Liep on July 01, 2012, 09:26:04 AM
Mørkøv just secured himself the mountain jersey, yay Denmark!
:thumbsup:
Interesting day, today.
I look forward to this years winner being negated because of doping :)
wonder which pharmacist is going to win this year? :P
Quote from: katmai on July 01, 2012, 03:29:26 PM
I look forward to this years winner being negated because of doping :)
Last year's winner is still the winner. :contract:
Give it another year :P
Quote from: katmai on July 01, 2012, 04:26:44 PM
Give it another year :P
Just checked the list of winners and besides Sastre and Evans they've all been caught going back to '95 and Indurain. :lol: And I'm sad to say Miguel was probably more doped than they are today. :(
Quality sprint finish from Cavendish, winning by just 1/2 of a wheel. :bowler:
Mørkøv has been in the breakaway for three straight days. And this in his first Tour de France! I like this guy.
Peter Sagan won another stage today, a sprint uphill and still with enough left in him to do the running man while crossing the line.
I call it here, Sagan is the next to get caught for doping.
Quote from: Liep on July 03, 2012, 08:38:04 AM
Mørkøv has been in the breakaway for three straight days. And this in his first Tour de France! I like this guy.
Yes, real spirit and gave it his all before breaking to the Ukrainian.
Nasty bid, fast crash in the peloton with 30k to go; they were doing about 70km when it happened. :(
Tomorrow is has the first long big climb, should be an interesting finish in the mountains and the GC should be mixed up a bit. :cool:
Hesjedal is out. :(
Quote from: Liep on July 07, 2012, 04:24:51 AM
Hesjedal is out. :(
:(
I'm rather impressed by Griepel managing to ride the last 20 miles with a dislocated shoulder and still come 2nd.
British dominance in this stage, Froome was impressive.
Quote from: Liep on July 07, 2012, 10:23:42 AM
British dominance in this stage, Froome was impressive.
Yeah, odd isn't it. :bowler:
I don't know where that extra bust of energy came from, especially given the severity of the last few 100s metres of climb.
Quote from: mongers on July 07, 2012, 06:15:45 PM
Quote from: Liep on July 07, 2012, 10:23:42 AM
British dominance in this stage, Froome was impressive.
Yeah, odd isn't it. :bowler:
I don't know where that extra bust of energy came from, especially given the severity of the last few 100s metres of climb.
I'm guessing drugs.
When confronted with this statement "you can't win TdF without using doping" Wiggins replied "fucking wankers". I like this guy more and more. His final remarks were interpreted as 'cunt' by the Danish tabloids and 'cut' by Reuters.
Quote from: Liep on July 08, 2012, 12:30:07 PM
When confronted with this statement "you can't win TdF without using doping" Wiggins replied "fucking wankers". I like this guy more and more. His final remarks were interpreted as 'cunt' by the Danish tabloids and 'cut' by Reuters.
Yeah, the thing is Wiggins and many of the other rides, pretty much the whole British contingent will be taking part in the Olympics 5-6 days after the end of the tour, so they''re going to be scrutinised by a more rigorous anti-doping regime than that in professional bike racing.
So if anyone is engaged in illegal performance enhancing drugs and so forth, they run a high risk of being caught.
And given that so many of the British riders are likely to be medallists, then a high proportion of them will get tested.
I don't know why, but it seems to me that lard arses who can't comprehend that a fit person, who happens to also be an exceptional athlete like many in the tour, is capable of the physical feats the these cyclists manage.
Given they sometimes struggle to climb stairs, they can't get their heads around the idea of such physical effort and thus assume these athletes must be cheating; in a way an equivalence to how they are cheating themselves out of a healthy life.
Wiggins and Froome are completely smashing everyone else right now in the time trial.
:w00t:
Exciting for the Olympics too.
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 09, 2012, 10:05:48 AM
:w00t:
Exciting for the Olympics too.
Don't get too excited, the Tour is a Long race, lots of unexpected things could have. :(
Quote from: Scipio on July 07, 2012, 10:01:38 PM
Quote from: mongers on July 07, 2012, 06:15:45 PM
Quote from: Liep on July 07, 2012, 10:23:42 AM
British dominance in this stage, Froome was impressive.
Yeah, odd isn't it. :bowler:
I don't know where that extra bust of energy came from, especially given the severity of the last few 100s metres of climb.
I'm guessing drugs.
Actually Wiggins replied to this more eloquently:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/tour-de-france-race-leader-bradley-wiggins-in-a-rage-over-dope-slurs-7923479.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/tour-de-france-race-leader-bradley-wiggins-in-a-rage-over-dope-slurs-7923479.html)
Quote
The Tour de France leader, Bradley Wiggins, stormed out of a press conference in a fury yesterday after being asked what his reaction was to anonymous members of the Twittersphere who claimed it was impossible to win the race without being doped.
"I'd say they are just f***ing w***ers," was Wiggins' impassioned response. "I can't be dealing with people like that, it justifies their own bone idleness. Rather than getting off their a***s and doing something with their lives it's easier for them to sit underneath a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of s**t..." Wiggins then got up and walked out, bringing an abrupt end to proceedings.
Two excellent stages, won by Frenchmen from breakaways including Thomas Voeckler's heroic performance, are followed by today's win, again following an epic break and this time a Brit wins it.
Making David Milllar the fourth Brit to win a Tour de France stage this year. !
Oh and there's the small matter of Brits, Bradley Wiggins and David Froome holding 1st and 2nd place in the GC. :cool:
Still another 8 stages to go though including 3 mountain stages, so all sorts of things could happen.
I have never seen so many british flags along side the roads as this year, and what a year to decide watching the tour. :P
And to piss on the parade, next year when Wiggins will actually be challenged (by Contador, A. Schleck and probably Froome ;)) it's going to be interesting to see what he can do.
Mørkøv broke away from the breakaway and we're getting flooded with emotiporn. Apparently he said he'd win for his dad who died 5 years ago today, and the press is loving it.
Greipel won closely followed by boy wonder Sagan. Sky managed to get a lot of enemies by having Wiggins and Froome pace in LL Sanchez, a stupid and unnecessary move by Sky. Wiggo sure knows how to piss off his fellow riders, last it was Nibali.
Quote from: Liep on July 14, 2012, 10:01:31 AM
Greipel won closely followed by boy wonder Sagan. Sky managed to get a lot of enemies by having Wiggins and Froome pace in LL Sanchez, a stupid and unnecessary move by Sky. Wiggo sure knows how to piss off his fellow riders, last it was Nibali.
The Sky team seems so dominant, that the other teams have no option but to 'gang up' on them, so why bother to play nicey-nice ? :unsure:
Pity today's breakaway got caught and Vini fadded in the last few kms.
(https://p.twimg.com/AxxpGGHCIAE2MEI.png:large)
What's up with all the punctures today? Protesters putting tacks on the route? If so, what are they protesting about?
Quote from: Brazen on July 15, 2012, 10:08:40 AM
What's up with all the punctures today? Protesters putting tacks on the route? If so, what are they protesting about?
Random chance clustering of incidents ?
I'll bet the tyres these riders are on are a fair bit lighter than the 25mm things I use on my hybrid and I think those are on the small size.
Plus of course, these roads are quite narrow, with lots of debris on the road edges, so bound to get more punctures.
From a friend watching live:
"Non a l'ours written all over the road. Local farmers protesting against the reintroduction of bears to the Pyrenees. Nutters..."
A rather niche protest.
Quote from: Brazen on July 15, 2012, 11:39:05 AM
From a friend watching live:
"Non a l'ours written all over the road. Local farmers protesting against the reintroduction of bears to the Pyrenees. Nutters..."
A rather niche protest.
Marty will no doubt have something to say about this.
Quote from: Brazen on July 15, 2012, 10:08:40 AM
What's up with all the punctures today? Protesters putting tacks on the route? If so, what are they protesting about?
Oh, good grief now that I've seen today's highlights, I see what you mean; I thought you were just talking about the little clusters of punctures we've had on the tour.
What a tool that person/s is, I guess one can take comfort these incidents being rather rare.
Rather uninteresting stage today, the breakaway got organised and the main field didn't bother to chase them down.
However team Sky lets no one challenge Wiggin's lead. :bowler:
Frank Schleck tested positive for doping, or rather an illegal substance.
I kind of hope the B sample will be negative, a new generation top rider being caught like this will make it another year focused on doping instead of the race.
Quote from: Cycling NewsFränk Schleck requests B sample, will claim he's been poisoned
Fränk Schleck has requested his B sample be tested after the UCI advised him of an Adverse Analytical Finding in a urine sample collected from him at an in-competition test at the Tour de France on July 14, 2012.
The WADA accredited laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry detected the presence of the diuretic Xipamide in Schleck's urine sample which he claims is due to "poisoning." RadioShack-Nissan has withdrawn Schleck from the race.
Luxembourg media network RTL published a link to a statement by Schleck late on Tuesday where he denied having knowingly used the substance. It is understood he earlier travelled to the police station himself to make a statement to officers from OCLAESP (Central Office for the fight against environmental damage and for public health).
Schleck's full statement translated from French by Cyclingnews:
"A doctor from the UCI has tonight informed me that a Prohibited Substance has been detected in my urine during a routine doping control performed on July 14, 2012.
"I categorically deny taking any banned substance. I have no explanation for the test result and therefore insist that the B sample be tested which is my right. If this analysis confirms the initial result, I will argue that I have been the victim of poisoning."
Voeckler :wub:
Voeckler. :wub:
Even if he beat Sørensen, it's just hard to dislike that maniac.
Quote from: Liep on July 18, 2012, 10:03:38 AM
Voeckler. :wub:
Even if he beat Sørensen, it's just hard to dislike that maniac.
Yes and an excellent stage victory, he throughly deserved it.
Pity that Cadel Evans challenge has so faded, unless of course he pulls out something extraordinary in the next 3 days. And baring any unfortunate accidents to the top three.
Chris Anker Sørensen just won Le Prix de la combativité! Oh yeah, also, Wiggins won the tour in an impressive fashion.
Quote from: Liep on July 21, 2012, 10:56:34 AM
Chris Anker Sørensen just won Le Prix de la combativité! Oh yeah, also, Wiggins won the tour in an impressive fashion.
:D
Yes, I think Wiggins had to emphatically win the stage to put Froome in his place and show he's a deserved winner. :cool:
Domination by Sky. Cavendish won the sprint on the Champs-Élysées for the fourth time in a row, insane.
Cav sprinting is just extraordinary. The acceleration's unreal.
Quote from: Liep on July 22, 2012, 10:46:34 AM
Domination by Sky. Cavendish won the sprint on the Champs-Élysées for the fourth time in a row, insane.
Yeah Cavendish is extraordinary, especially the stage he won the day before yesterday; amazing acceleration, one of the two breakaway guys he overtook almost on the line described it as not really seeing cavendish pass him, he noticed it more by the expression on the other riders face.
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 22, 2012, 10:54:41 AM
Cav sprinting is just extraordinary. The acceleration's unreal.
Indeed, and I think this tour is a UK triumph unlikely to be ever repeated; 1st and 2nd place, 7 stage wins out of 20, by 4 different UK cyclists. :bowler:
And in one of the greatest endurance or annual sports events in the world.
Many of the competitors, the ones that finished, (apparently over 10% out with broken bones), have cycle for around 90 hours over just 22 days.
In terms of effort that's perhaps 20-23 world class marathons done at the pace of at least one a day.