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-- Tour De France 2004
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I'm looking forward to tomorrow's stage - should be killer! Hopefully Lance's main rivals will at least try something, to make the race more exciting.
Predicted winner (stage 12): M. Rasmussen - Rabobank.
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| Originally posted by Genesis Evolved I'm looking forward to tomorrow's stage - should be killer! Hopefully Lance's main rivals will at least try something, to make the race more exciting. Predicted winner (stage 12): M. Rasmussen - Rabobank. |
Damn, Armstrong and Basso just ripped the field apart!
Was present imo, basso was allready laughing 100 meters before the finish, anyway where were those so called great mountain goats as Mayo,Heras didn't see them at all 
I saw them all....3 minutes back 
Ok, so I was wrong about Rasmussen, but he gave it a good try 
Thought Basso looked incredibly strong and I was impressed by the ease with which he followed Armstrong. Will also be interesting to see if Kl�den is now captain of T-Mobile or they're still betting on Ullrich?
Should be a great stage tomorrow. Allez CSC! 
Hamilton leaves the race... why? 
Zubeldia out, and Mayo looks just about done.
I saw that, looks like lot of big guns are done. I think Hamilton said hes got back problems from a crash earlier in the week.
Voekler(sp) is doing a good job for an unknown guy.
Ullrich looks done as well.
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| Originally posted by BadBadNeil (...) Voekler(sp) is doing a good job for an unknown guy. (...) |
Actually, Armstrong is supposed to do next year's Tour as well (as part of the Discovery Channel taking over US Postal's sponsorship).
Barring any serious mishaps, Lance won the Tour today. He has such a gap now between his nearest threats that I really don't see much of a chance for the field. The only one that has even a prayer in my opinion is Basso. He seems very stong and is only a minute and a half (still a crapload of time) behind Lance. I do think Basso will fade during the last individual time trial which is very flat, however.
What suprised me the most today was not Lance's performance, but the performances of his competitors. Tyler dropping out, Ullrich again struggling, Mayo self-destructing and Heras again not doing much of anything were all a shock. I think this year will not necessarily be the year Lance beat the field, but the year the field beat themselves. I will say Voeckler has amazing heart, and I think in the coming years he will be France's next great hope for a Tour champion...although as said before, Basso looks pretty amazing himself.
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| Originally posted by NeoPhono Barring any serious mishaps, Lance won the Tour today. He has such a gap now between his nearest threats that I really don't see much of a chance for the field. The only one that has even a prayer in my opinion is Basso. He seems very stong and is only a minute and a half (still a crapload of time) behind Lance. I do think Basso will fade during the last individual time trial which is very flat, however. What suprised me the most today was not Lance's performance, but the performances of his competitors. Tyler dropping out, Ullrich again struggling, Mayo self-destructing and Heras again not doing much of anything were all a shock. I think this year will not necessarily be the year Lance beat the field, but the year the field beat themselves. I will say Voeckler has amazing heart, and I think in the coming years he will be France's next great hope for a Tour champion...although as said before, Basso looks pretty amazing himself. |
Its all about luck many times as regards to being able to finish the race at all. It takes tremendous talent to even finish but a single fall, slip, fan in your way, etc can end your tour really fast. Even lance fell a couple times and we all know how careful he plans and his team plans to keep him safe. Remember last year when that fan's hat flipped Lance off his bike? If he just fell wrong it would have been over right there.
Its tough with 180+ riders crammed in a street for nothing to happen.
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| Originally posted by NeoPhono Barring any serious mishaps, Lance won the Tour today. He has such a gap now between his nearest threats that I really don't see much of a chance for the field. The only one that has even a prayer in my opinion is Basso. He seems very stong and is only a minute and a half (still a crapload of time) behind Lance. I do think Basso will fade during the last individual time trial which is very flat, however. What suprised me the most today was not Lance's performance, but the performances of his competitors. Tyler dropping out, Ullrich again struggling, Mayo self-destructing and Heras again not doing much of anything were all a shock. I think this year will not necessarily be the year Lance beat the field, but the year the field beat themselves. I will say Voeckler has amazing heart, and I think in the coming years he will be France's next great hope for a Tour champion...although as said before, Basso looks pretty amazing himself. |
. Ullrich just needs to take better care of his body in the off-season, then he would be a realllllyyyyyyy amazing rider. He will be a killer in the individual time trial. I don't think there is anyway though, that he could make up any gap over 3 minutes from Lance, again, unless Lance crashes.
voekler is just so young ....i think it's his 1st tour de france and he is the best young also (-25 yrs old ) since he wears the white jersey too ....so i think it's great for him unfortunately the dream stops on on wednesday for him ...tomorrow they rest then i guess we'll see lance in yellow ....
�lrich is disapponting this year but as i've heard his bad condition would come from his weight loss ...we know that every year jan has probs with weight if u see him in january ,february ..he is fat for a cyclist but this year he lost all his weight in 1 month and 1.5 month which is way too fast and now he is kinda tired ...at least his body ...i think it's shame for him he has so much potential and could do much more ....it's shame for the tour too because now there is no real "fight" ...cuz lance is too strong ....but it still exciting !
btw yesterday i went to see the tour ...it was 4 hours away from where i live but im such a fan and it was really a great day and stage ....
anyone here is fan from robbie mc ewen?he wears the green jersey if yeah plz PM me !
Bravo Riis 
Getting Voigt to fall back and lead the Armstrong group in chasing Ullrich is disappointing. You shoud ATTACK Armstrong instead of helping him... 
It was a good stage today. I am still amazed by Armstrong's final sprint.
-Clovis
awsome stage ..lance really tore it up at the end of the sprint of todays stage. Basso im shocked how well he is doing but his weakness will be the time trials tomarrow. Ullrich did well today not well enough to gain some time on lance but did well considering his past stage performaces, i beleive him doing well in the time trials and shaving up some time on everyone else and probably getting in 3rd surpassing kloden his team mate and regaining his Team leadership. I still think Lance will gain some time off Basso few mins.
I predict (after time trials) and gonna stay till end of the total tour
1. Lance Armstrong
2. Ivan Basso
3. Jan Ullrich
we will see but as long as no crashs i see the tour ending in such with Jan still reaching the podium
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| Originally posted by Genesis Evolved Bravo Riis Getting Voigt to fall back and lead the Armstrong group in chasing Ullrich is disappointing. You shoud ATTACK Armstrong instead of helping him... |
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| Originally posted by BadBadNeil I think the method behind this is that Ullrich getting a big lead is more of a worry for team CSC than team US Postal as his time is much closer to that of Basso. Therefore if Basso took off after Ullrich lance would have chased anyways because Basso is the only threat really to himself. By working together they conserve energy and track down Ullrich together. I think this strategy worked in Basso's favor even though he didn't gain anything because he still had enough energy at the end to get second. Also the conservation of energy is important because with a mountain time trial and two harder stages of the alps ahead you can't waste energy on a breakaway that will only give you maybe 10 seconds and then you lose minutes the next few days. |
I almost was correct ..... i knew ullrich was gonna put down a killer time trial and thought he would win the overall time trial didnt think armstrong would distroy his time.... i figured Kloden was gonna choke enough for ullrich to take over his time but that did happen so this might be the standings till to paris
1st - Armstrong
2nd - Basso
3rd - Kloden
but i still think Ulrich might pull it off and make a podium on the 3rd place. BUt we will see
KILLER TIME TRIAL BY LANCE.... distroys just anyone that challenges him totally different from last year where he barely won
Monster time trial, only 1 second off the record for that mountain by Pantani. Hopefully nothing happens to him in the next few stages because it would be a shame for him not to win, he really deserves it after demolishing everyone today. That was a big crowd too!
The more things like this happens, the more I become impressed with the shit lance puts up with.
http://msn.foxsports.com/id/2593080
It's crap like this that make Merckx and Armstrong the best of the best. FFS make the sport more respectable by limititing the access of idiots such as these. Otherwise the crowd favorite is always going to have an advantage. Given that most of the challenge comes from overseas perhaps I'm not that surprised.
Disgusting lack of sportsmanship. Apart from the spitting at Lance, lots of the German spectators shouted abuse at Voigts (for chasing Ullrich on the earlier stage).
Also, the nutters who run alongside the riders should be shot in the foot 
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