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="John Cougar Lunchbucket":1we3rs8m]Yeah, I think Lance Armstrong is full of shit and an asshole too.[/quote:1we3rs8m]
I hope he has to race with a drug testing gizmo firmly planted up that asshole.
Later
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Frayed Knot
Jul 06 2009 09:10 AM
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"What channel/times?"
Channel: Versus (stupidest name for a TV channel EVAH!)
Time: Basically all day (like what da fuck else they gonna air?)
'Live' it's in the morning sometime (6 hour time difference). But they'll just repeat that 2-3 hour portion 4 or 5 times more throughout the day, including the prime-time hours.
Tour is going clockwise this year (it alternates) starting in the south-east. So they'll hit the Pyrenees first, after a few days of mostly flat riding, and then the alps towards the end
Stage 1 - the mostly ceremonial short (15K is this case) individual time trial used so as to have a leader-board and a yellow jersey wearer for the first 'real' day - was held through the streets of Monaco. Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara smoked the field by like a 30 second gap over the next highest finisher. Armstrong placed 10th.
Stage 2 was Sunday. 116 miles in near 100 degree heat at times mostly along the Mediterranean coast. Not too much happens in these early stages except for mostly lesser names who'll probably not figure in the final outcome sprinting all out at the end for the chance to win the stage and the short-time glory and kisses from the babes on the podium in the post-race ceremonies.
Stage 3 today: 122 miles from Marseille going mostly westward and a bit inland. Again, nothing much will happen that really matters unless there's a big, hairy crack-up which takes out a couple of contenders.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 06 2009 09:51 PM
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Stage 3 was actually more interesting than most early jaunts.
Usually break-aways in these early stages consist of a half-dozen cowboys looking for a day in the sun and no one bothers to chase them down. Today, a group led by one entire team took advantage of a zig-zag road and shifting winds to sneak a group of about 30 riders away from the main peleton. What was interesting was both who was in the break group and also who was not.
In: current leader Cancellera and Armstrong (who jumpa from 10th place to 3rd), plus a couple of sprinters who everyone knew were going to fight it out at the end.
Out: Most of the rest of the top 10 riders all of whom lost around 40 seconds to the lead gang.
Also not in the lead group was Alberto Contador, the guy who's supposed to be the designated leader in Armstrong's team (Astana). Lance said he was all set to be the dutiful servant in favor of the team's leader but now the first chance he gets he sprints ahead and becomes part of the group who drop-kick the guy out of 2nd place. Still early obviously but I wonder how well that went over in the team's post-race meeting.
Stage 4 on Tuesday is the team time trial where each team rides together in a staggered start sprint race. A team with a deep squad (like Astana) will have the chance to move each of their riders up with a strong performance - something that could put Lance into the overall lead.
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jul 07 2009 07:36 AM
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My cable has been out for 2 days straight, not seen any. Must fix tonight tr I will kill.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 08 2009 07:24 AM
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Team Astana won the Stage 4 team time trial meaning that all their members moved up the standings by however many minutes/seconds they finished above each other team.
By fun coincidence, Armstrong started the day in 3rd place 40 seconds off the lead and Team Astana finished exactly 40 seconds ahead of leader Fabian Cancellara's 'Saxo Bank' squad. So there's a virtual tie for the overall leader right now although Cancellara retains the yellow jersey on the basis of 1/10ths of a second difference in the Stage 1 individual time trial. Armstrong's teammate, Alberto Contador, who is the designated (or maybe not) leader of Astana is in 3rd place 19 seconds back.
196K ride today, mostly flat and along the coast, heading for the Spanish border.
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metirish
Jul 09 2009 08:34 AM
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A scathing article here that compares Armstrong with Plain......not sure about that but the rest is hard hitting
http://www.slate.com/id/2222407
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MFS62
Jul 09 2009 11:58 AM
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Bad pun alert:
The only similarity I can see is that now that she has resigned, she can peddle herself all over the country.
Later
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Triple Dee
Jul 09 2009 01:26 PM
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The level of crap that comes out of Armstrong's mouth never ceases to amaze me. -- if he's going to be a domestique for Contador in the mountains, like he claims, I'll streak across Citi Field.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 09 2009 02:47 PM
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="metirish":25wux6z1]A scathing article here that compares Armstrong with Plain......not sure about that but the rest is hard hitting
http://www.slate.com/id/2222407[/quote:25wux6z1]
Nothing wrong with an article bashing Lance, but launching it by citing "similarities" between him and Palin is simply idiotic. It's like the title and the body of the article were barely even connected but I guess for Slate's audience it was a come-on they couldn't resist.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 09 2009 07:43 PM
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btw, virtually no change in the main standings over stages 5 and 6 as the tour continued down the coast and crossed the border into Spain.
Next three days are the first of the mountain stages. That's where stuff should start getting interesting - both for the tour in general and also the 'Astana' team in particular as we'll start to get an idea of what kind of climbing shape Lance is in.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 11 2009 08:01 AM
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Stage 7 - the first day in the mountains - was interesting.
A nice little jaunt of 139 miles which, oh by the way, went from 700 or so feet high in Barcelona, Spain to around 7,500 in the Andorran Pyrennees and ended with the hardest climb of the day.
- the stage was won by a breakaway Frenchman who was otherwise out of the top ranks
- the new Yellow Jersey wearer - Italian rider Rinaldo Nocentini - came out of the 2nd breakaway group and finished just far enough in front of the main group to make up a ~3 minute defecit
- Previous Yellow Jersey wearer Fabio Cancellara got dropped like a rock part way up that final climb and finished some 10 minutes back
- and the Astana soap opera saw Alberto Contador as the guy who sprinted away from the pack just before the end to leapfrog Armstrong and put himself as the leader of that team
Overall:
Nocentini
Contador + 6 seconds
Armstrong + 8 seconds
Another day in the Pyrennees today (going on now) although one that ends with a lengthy downhill
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Frayed Knot
Jul 12 2009 07:22 PM
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No major changes in stages 8 & 9 - the last of 3 consecutive mountain stages.
Day off Monday as the tour moves to the relatively flat ground of central France for a few days.
Week one ends with the standings favoring the riders from Team Astana both on the basis of their winning team time trial stage and also from them leading and setting the pace for the peleton during several of the stages to discourage breakaways from other contenders.
3 of the top 8 are Americans (Armstrong, Leipheimer & Van de Velde_
1 - R Nocentini (Team AG2R-La Moniale)
2 - A Contador (Astana)-- 6 seconds behind
3 - L Armstrong -- (Astana) 8 seconds
4 - L Leipheimer -- (Astana) 39 seconds
5 - B Wiggins -- (Garmin-Slipstream) 46 seconds
6 - A Kloden -- (Astana) 54 seconds
7 - T Martin -- (Columbia - HTC) 1:00
8 - C VandeVelde -- (Garmin-Slipstream) 1:24
9 - A Schleck -- (Saxo-Bank) 1:49
10 - V Nibaldi -- (LiquiGas) 1:54
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Nymr83
Jul 12 2009 07:32 PM
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| ]Channel: Versus (stupidest name for a TV channel EVAH!)
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i thought that was the NHL's channel
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Frayed Knot
Jul 12 2009 08:40 PM
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="Nymr83"]| ]Channel: Versus (stupidest name for a TV channel EVAH!)
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i thought that was the NHL's channel |
It is.
It used to be called the 'Outdoor Life' Network (or something like that) but they changed it to 'Versus' soon after they got the NHL deal I suppose to indicate that they now televise team sports in addition to just huntin'/fishin' and other outdoor-sy shows.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 14 2009 08:20 PM
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Le Tour resumed with Stage 10 in the central France farmlands for the Bastille Day holiday (not that anyone works in Europe during the summer anyway) after Monday's off day.
Mainly flat terrain which makes it tough for breakaways and yielded no changes in the overall leaderboard.
Mostly it was a day for the sprinters to battle each other for points in the top sprinter category. England's Cavendish won his 3rd stage of this tour already (but his mountain stages were far enough off the lead to where he's no where near the top) but it was enough to re-wrestle the sprinter's Green Jersey back from the tour's other top sprinter this year, Norway's Thor (the God of Thunder) Hushovd
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Frayed Knot
Jul 17 2009 08:05 AM
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What seemed like an uneventful Stage 12 - where nothing much on the leader board changed - turned into a big deal when it was revealed that 4th place rider Levi Leipheimer had broken his wrist in a late crash and will need to drop out of this year's tour.
Leipheimer, not only a strong rider himself, but also a member of the Astana team where he was considered to be one of "Lance's guys" on the team that still needs to decide who its leader in going to be as the tour heads for the Alps next week.
Lower mountains starting today (near the German border) after 3 straight days on the flatter grounds of central France.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 19 2009 06:12 PM
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Back into the mountains today as they ducked into Switzerland - and Alberto Contador virtually sprinted away from the rest of the field as the stage finished with a steep climb over the final 10 miles. That ride not only put him into the yellow jersey but it also established him, and not Lance, to be both the leader of their Astana team and as the overwhelming favorite for the tour victory.
Off day tomorrow. 6 stages left - including 1 time trial (Thurs) plus this year's main mountain stage (Fir). But, with a lead of over 1-1/2 minutes, unless Contador seriously cracks on that last climb to the point where suddenly someone is leaving him in the dust, he'll be the likely winner in Paris next Sunday.
1 - Contador
2 - Armstrong + 1' 37"
3 - Wiggins + 1' 46"
4 - Kloden + 2' 17"
5 - A. Schleck + 2' 26"
6 - Nocentini (former Y.J. wearer) + 2' 30"
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Frayed Knot
Jul 22 2009 10:06 PM
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4 days left (aren't you excited?)
Alberto Contador continues in the yellow. He spent today (Wed) fighting off challenges from the Schleck brothers (Andy & Frank of Luxembourg) while Lance confounded his skeptics by playing the good teammate.
There's basically two stages left where contenders can still mount a challenge. Thursday's ~25mi individual time trial which could favor Armstrong making up some time and also Britain's sprint specialist Bradley Wiggins. And then Saturday's 100+ miler, which ends with a monster climb up Mount Ventoux, could turn into a guts challenge up the mountain between Contador and the two Schlecks assuming they don't lose too much time on the time trial. Friday's stage will be a bit of a breather between the two and doesn't have tough enough climbs to make for a successful break by one of the high contenders, and Sunday's final is an easy and largely ceremonial stage.
1) A. Contador
2) A. Schleck +2' 26"
3) F. Schleck +3' 25"
4) L. Armstrong +3' 55"
5) A. Kloden +4' 44"
6) B. Wiggins +4' 53"
7) V. Nibali +5' 09"
8) C. Van de Velde +8' 08"
It's Contador's race to lose obviously but that doesn't mean he can't do it - although he'll have more strong teammates around him (Lance & Kloden) than the Schlecks who basically have each other at this point.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 23 2009 09:18 PM
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Contador wins not only in the mountains but also in the time trial and all but sewed up this year's tour.
He won today's (Thurs) time trial stage outright and, in doing so, padded his lead over everyone.
That lead is now up to 4' 11" over Andy Schleck
by 5' 25" over Lance Armstrong - who got himself back into 3rd place
by 5' 36" over Bradley Wiggins
5' 38" over Anders Kloden
and 5' 59" over Frank Schleck
Any further challenges are likely to come on Saturday's stage and are likely to come from either or both of the Schleck brothers.
Lance has shown that he may have lost a little but not too much. He would love to hang onto 3rd at this point and get himself a place on the winner's podium and if he's feeling good on Saturday could bust a move on the mountain finish to try and take 2nd. Team Astana would love to try for a clean sweep on the podium with Contador, Armstrong & Kloden.
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MFS62
Jul 24 2009 10:14 AM
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The Cheryl Crow curse?
Later
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Frayed Knot
Jul 24 2009 10:42 AM
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="Farmer Ted":15py9gc9]Wondering what Lance is doing next summer...
http://teamradioshack.com/getready/[/quote:15py9gc9]
Not surprising that if he's going to stay in the bike-racing racket for at least another year or two that he's going to do so with a team built around him.
During his 3+ years in retirement sponsorships changed and his old squad had broken up and gone their separate ways. That he was able to get on his current team (Astana) on fairly short notice was due not only to his name but also because the Belgian who served as the long-time manager of his old teams was now managing this one. But it's a team based out of Kazahkstan and is one that was already formed around another much younger rider before he even came aboard.
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Farmer Ted
Jul 24 2009 10:43 AM
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He's getting the old band back together!
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Frayed Knot
Jul 26 2009 10:40 AM
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="Farmer Ted":4kaiulef]He's getting the old band back together![/quote:4kaiulef]
Will actually be interesting to see what kind of band he puts together. Some of his buddies form the old days are older, retired, under contract to other teams, or possibly not buddies anymore. His old team manager was also managing the team he was on this year but is supposedly feuding with the owners and thus will be a free agent of sorts himself. There are also two other American-based teams already going so a third won't automatically get the best riders from the USA.
Anyway, le Tour is over.
Saturday's 105 mile ride ending on a brutal mountain climb produced some fun moments as few of the challengers - mainly the Schleck brothers - tried numerous times to pull away and eat into Contador's lead nut each time Contador latched himself onto one brother's tail while Lance jumped in right behind the other to protect their lead. The result was that the top three finished n the same group and kept their overall positions.
Contador - 1st
A Schleck - 2nd
Armstrong - 3rd
Sunday's mostly ceremonial ride into Paris finished with all the riders in a large group save for a few mad dashes to the finish line by non-contenders trying for stage wins.
2nd win for Contador (also 2007)
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Valadius
Jul 26 2009 12:06 PM
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This thread should have been titled "Tour de Lance".
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Frayed Knot
Jul 26 2009 01:07 PM
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Nah, I'll leave that one for the newspapers and other U.S.-based media outlets who only know the race because of Lance. He's obviously a big part of it and deserves all the attention he gets (good, bad, and otherwise) but le Tour existed before he got there and will go on after he (really) retires.
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Farmer Ted
Jul 26 2009 01:50 PM
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It was a remarkable ride for Lance. I thought all along that Contador would win. I think he'll see in hindsight that it was best to have Lance on the team to push him.
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