quote:

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.

Tyler dropped out, are you serious? I def expected him to finish this year.

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Gabriel & Dresden, Deep Dish, Paul Van Dyk, Edgar V, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten,Armin Van Buren, Pete Moutso, Dan Sampson, K Yun, Dee Jay Clutch, Ak1200, Dieselboy, Seb Fontain, Miss Kittin, Rich "Humpty" Visson, Reid Speed...owned me!

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.

quote:

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.

Heras is already out of the race. He had the nasty spill and his wounds were just to overbearing for him and he couldn't keep it up. Understandable in this "Le Tour de Crash". If Lance holds his advantage on Ullrich and just rides a safe and conservative tour then there is no chance for anyone. Basso suprised me really. I don't think he really has a chance because as we saw yesterday, he could just keep up with Lance, but there was no way he could surpass him. Look at the finish, Lance still had the legs to sprint a bit and Basso just let him fly by, not even trying the sprint. That was a very long stage though, but even if Basso were to get Lance on a sprint, he would only gain an 8 second advantage... Asevedo (sp) was awesome. He set the pace that killed the Ullrich . 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.

And as already said Voeckler may not be the most amazing rider, but he has a ton of heart.

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 ....

ülrich 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

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

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

quote:

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...

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.


Was a great finish today! Stage was full of excitement. Can't wait for the time trial tomorrow.

quote:

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.

Yes, leaving the group to follow Ullrich would have been foolish, but that's not what I'm talking about. Before today's stage, Basso was somewhere around 6 mins ahead of Ullrich, a massive lead. USP were already chasing him and Landis looked just about cooked. Would have been the perfect opportunity to let Armstrong's men drain themselves and then attack.

Sad to see CSC defending 2nd place instead of challenging Armstrong for 1st. Riis has always been proponent of aggressive riding and not the chicken decisions we saw today.

He still deserves this, in my opinion

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!