I guess the silence means that everyone was just left stupified and breathless after's today's awesome stage.
I imagine a lot of the high budget teams will be looking VERY closely at Pierre Rolland in the time trial, and during the transfer season. My team for next year, the Young Guns, will feature Van Garderen, Sagan, Bo-Hog and Rolland. With Tommy D as a ringer. Then I might have points left over to pick Cavendish. Watching the new talent in cycling is a lot more fun than looking at the AAA players the Seattle Mariners are foisting on us as an MLB club.
Look for Cadel Evans to salvage the tour in a surprise breakaway attempt on Sunday after being down to A Schleck by 3 seconds following the time trial. Contador will follow in a vain attempt to make up the 18 seconds he'll need to get on the podium.
This is the first year I have really actually followed the Tour, and I was wondering if they ever really race the last day?
The announcers talk about the TT as if it was the end of the deal...I am guessing it would be hard to break away on Sunday, but I gotta think if the stakes are high which definitely looks plausble/probably at this point, there would be some kind of effort.
The sprinters will sprint tomorrow but the GC is over. Not much Andy could have done about what happened today. Cadel almost won the whole time trial !! Give the man his due, he's remade himself.
A few impressions: - Levi mailed it in on the tt. He's a good time trialer and should have placed higher. His team had a lot of bad breaks but so what. Contador was on his own for the most part too. Never been a Levi fan.... - Contador never quit and showed a lot of pride. (see above) - Fabian didn't garner me the points I thought he might. Wet roads this morning slowed him down I think. - Andy has zero to be ashamed of. His 60k break was epic and he rode a good tt but didn't have enough of a gap going in. His dad predicted this. - Veogames shouldn't count the sprint tomorrow. Unless someone other than Cav wins it. - Lots of great young riders coming up. Rolland was impressive as was G Thomas. - Biggest bummer for me was Horner crashing out. He had great form and it would have been fun to see what he could have done when not relegated to domestiqueness. Those early flat stage crashes are a big waste.
I have never followed cycling much but I will say there is no doubt in my mind that the brothers are NOT deserving of the Yellow if they are that poor at the TT.
Cadel is far and away the best this year in my opinion. It WAS great to see AC come back into form late in the race, but it was a little too late.
Oh Stephen I disagree (of course I would). To say the Schlecks were "that bad" at TTing and therefore do not deserve to wear yello iis not giving them OR Cadel their due. Chris hit it on the head. Cadel absolutely put in a HUGE effort today. He came in second on the TT to Tony Martin AND bested his own time from Dauphine by 1:04 where he had fresher legs. That is pretty huge. Also, to say the Schecks are "that bad at TTing" is insulting considering they came in 17 and 20 on the stage with big guns Fabian coming in just 1:00 ahead of them.
Now with that said, I will say the best man won.- just not the cutest.
How many days until the Spring Classics? I am going through withdrawl already.
Nemo leaps to Andy's defense! Who didn't see THAT coming?
I will say my congrats now to Team Nemo. I haven't done all the math but I am pretty sure I got "Schlecked" at the line with the two bros on the podium. I think that pushes Nemo over the top but is there another contender lurking? Lots of final GC points out there......
Cadel stayed smart, stayed fresh, stayed upright, and turned himself inside out when he had to. Good on him! Lots of great stories from this race. I think it's (okay, this may be crazy talk) a clean peleton, illustrated by no completely dominating performances. After really reading up on the doping that has been so prevalent over the past 20 years or more, I am very happy to have a level playing field for the great young CLEAN riders to play on. Hopefully gone are the days where if, as a pro, if you didn't dope you couldn't hang on. I'm sure it will continue to occur, but I don't think there will be team wide programs.
Wasn't Cadel's racing over this TdF just like what Levi gets comdemned for? Staying 'constant' the whole race then TT'ing his way to victory? Sounds all to familiar to me.
Pardon me while I gloat just a little :-) I seriously can NOT believe I actually won this year! On top of that, my little Team Nemo came in 302 out of 2809 in the "United States" League. Fred Velo put up a serious defense of the Yellow Jersey worthy of Thomas Voeckler and Zcopp nearly snatched victory from me towards the end- a surprise Contadore like attack. But I ended up in yellow and I'm tickled pink!
Comments
I guess the silence means that everyone was just left stupified and breathless after's today's awesome stage.
I imagine a lot of the high budget teams will be looking VERY closely at Pierre Rolland in the time trial, and during the transfer season. My team for next year, the Young Guns, will feature Van Garderen, Sagan, Bo-Hog and Rolland. With Tommy D as a ringer. Then I might have points left over to pick Cavendish. Watching the new talent in cycling is a lot more fun than looking at the AAA players the Seattle Mariners are foisting on us as an MLB club.
Look for Cadel Evans to salvage the tour in a surprise breakaway attempt on Sunday after being down to A Schleck by 3 seconds following the time trial. Contador will follow in a vain attempt to make up the 18 seconds he'll need to get on the podium.
Andy and Frank are getting me a lot of points but bad decisions picking Horner and Leipheimer.
It's going to be a great finish once again.
The announcers talk about the TT as if it was the end of the deal...I am guessing it would be hard to break away on Sunday, but I gotta think if the stakes are high which definitely looks plausble/probably at this point, there would be some kind of effort.
Thoughts?
A few impressions:
- Levi mailed it in on the tt. He's a good time trialer and should have placed higher. His team had a lot of bad breaks but so what. Contador was on his own for the most part too. Never been a Levi fan....
- Contador never quit and showed a lot of pride. (see above)
- Fabian didn't garner me the points I thought he might. Wet roads this morning slowed him down I think.
- Andy has zero to be ashamed of. His 60k break was epic and he rode a good tt but didn't have enough of a gap going in. His dad predicted this.
- Veogames shouldn't count the sprint tomorrow. Unless someone other than Cav wins it.
- Lots of great young riders coming up. Rolland was impressive as was G Thomas.
- Biggest bummer for me was Horner crashing out. He had great form and it would have been fun to see what he could have done when not relegated to domestiqueness. Those early flat stage crashes are a big waste.
Cadel is far and away the best this year in my opinion. It WAS great to see AC come back into form late in the race, but it was a little too late.
Now with that said, I will say the best man won.- just not the cutest.
How many days until the Spring Classics? I am going through withdrawl already.
I will say my congrats now to Team Nemo. I haven't done all the math but I am pretty sure I got "Schlecked" at the line with the two bros on the podium. I think that pushes Nemo over the top but is there another contender lurking? Lots of final GC points out there......
Cadel stayed smart, stayed fresh, stayed upright, and turned himself inside out when he had to. Good on him! Lots of great stories from this race. I think it's (okay, this may be crazy talk) a clean peleton, illustrated by no completely dominating performances. After really reading up on the doping that has been so prevalent over the past 20 years or more, I am very happy to have a level playing field for the great young CLEAN riders to play on. Hopefully gone are the days where if, as a pro, if you didn't dope you couldn't hang on. I'm sure it will continue to occur, but I don't think there will be team wide programs.
Congrats to our podium winners, Nemo, Zach and Chris ... with Hayes and Tom playing the Voeckler and Contador roles of valiant efforts, full of heart.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/why-evans-beat-the-schleck-brothers
Can't say I looked at em that closely Chris!