Tour de France

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Re: Tour de France

Post by bloodypassit »

Belgium born Brad Wiggins is looking the goods

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Bomber »

bloodypassit wrote:Belgium born Brad Wiggins is looking the goods
:lol: :P :wink:
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rulebritannia
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Re: Tour de France

Post by rulebritannia »

Wiggo 8)

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Re: Tour de France

Post by DOC »

Wiggins born in Belgium and froome born in Kenya
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Re: Tour de France

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:D burn

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Rampant Antagonism »

Cycling is for people who can't play football.
A dry kebab is a friend to no-one.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by DOC »

Wiggo showed some class tonight, called it quits after many riders, including cadel, suffered punctures from tacs thrown onto the road

Ruined what could have been a good last 20km
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Re: Tour de France

Post by God Is No Englishman »

Quitters ! :shock:
Join the revolution, throw yourself into the Frey!

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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

Stage 14. This is not a full-on Pyrenean stage and is unlikely to have any major effect on the overall classification, but it’s no less interesting for all that.
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Re: Tour de France

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Defending champion Cadel Evans punctured three times after tacks were thrown onto the road in a dramatic incident at the Tour de France.

Evans was among about 30 riders who suffered flat tyres near or after the Mur de Peguere climb, about 39km from the finish of stage 14.

He was able to rejoin the group containing race leader Brad Wiggins, the bunch slowing so no one would be disadvantaged, and remains fourth overall at three minutes and 19 seconds.

Evans' BMC team director John Lelangue showed reporters a carpet tack he said he took out of one of the punctured tyres.

Croatian rider Robert Kiserlovski was taken to hospital after crashing at the start of the descent, but it is uncertain whether the sabotage caused his accident.

Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage, leading home a five-man break that finished more than 18 minutes ahead of the main group.

The drama happened as the main group crested the climb.

The first sign that something was wrong was Evans stopping at the summit banner and waving his arm in frustration as he sought a wheel change.

After what seemed an eternity, team-mate Stephen Cummings arrived to offer a wheel but he also had a puncture.

Then George Hincapie arrived and finally Evans was able to ride again.

But he had two more punctures, with team boss Jim Ochowicz falling into a roadside ditch at the second wheel change in a moment that was part-comedy, part-chaos.

Asked what happened, Evans replied sarcastically: "Nails, protesters or some kind-hearted people on the road.

"The world is full of people like that, unfortunately - not full, but ...

"You're in a bike race and people can see something they can gain, whether it's a protest or something they can gain from you as someone who's reasonably well-known.

"I'm used to people - the 'me me' generation, it's sometimes referred to - that's the way it goes.

"Hopefully ... karma comes around."

When it became clear that so many riders had punctured, Wiggins gestured for the group to slow so the peloton could regroup.

But almost immediately, French rider Pierre Rolland attacked and the Liquigas-Cannondale and Lotto-Belisol teams chased him down.

The Wiggins-Evans group eventually rejoined and rode to the finish.

It was reminiscent of stage 13 in the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, when Evans lost any chance of overall victory because of a long wait for a wheel change.

"This has happened to me before - two times in Spain," Evans said.

"For that reason, I don't race in Spain very often and sorry to the good Spanish people and my Spanish friends and so on.

"There are a few people in their country who take things too far, it's cost me a Vuelta, it's cost me other races."

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Steve#4 »

I would like someone to explain to me simply how the teams work.

I have been watching this year because the scenery is fantastic, it holds my attention.

But I do not know how a team gets a rider (say Wiggo, Cadel etc) through a race...

How do they win the tour when others win sprints, stages etc...

How does the Main rider benefit from their team mates sprinting ahead?

I hear the commentators say so and so are getting him to the front of the pack...How?

I really don't understand how the teams work.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by DOC »

Steve#6 wrote:I would like someone to explain to me simply how the teams work.

I have been watching this year because the scenery is fantastic, it holds my attention.

But I do not know how a team gets a rider (say Wiggo, Cadel etc) through a race...

How do they win the tour when others win sprints, stages etc...

How does the Main rider benefit from their team mates sprinting ahead?

I hear the commentators say so and so are getting him to the front of the pack...How?

I really don't understand how the teams work.
basically a team has 9 riders, 1 is the team leader, we'll take sky for example, and thats wiggins

most put out a sprinter too so that have an interest in every stage, this is cavendish for sky obviously

from this they build the team up with usually their best 7 riders in order to achieve the goals for the tour, for sky this was the yellow jersey in paris and for cav to knick a few stage wins, which has proved difficult with sagan, goss and griepel in good form

so to help cav sky have eisel, he will be his lead out man for the sprints, which is to get him to the front out of danger with about 700m to go on the flat sprinters stage, bosan hagan is a good sprinter too but has been employed as a helper to achieve both what cav and wiggins want

eisel will also ride with cavendish and get hi through the tough mountain stages in order to beat the cut off time

then the rest of the team is built to guide wiggins to paris in yellow, hence strong climbers like froome, porte, rodgers were employed, while bosan hagen can keep good pace on the flat stages

sky easily has the strongest team at the tour but they have a massive budget
wiggins
froome
cavendish
eisel
rodgers
porte
bosen hagen
i forget the other two

basically the winner is the shortest overall time to paris, hence on a flat day everyone in the peleton gets the same time, so GC riders looking for yellow dont loose time, hence why cancellara held it for 9 odd days, so these days basically follow a formula of a breakaway going out, usually teams who cannot win the race and just want some exposure, usually a french team, the peleton then brings them back with roughly 10 kms to go and then teams try to form a line to lead out their sprinter, race favourites also go to the front in order to avoid crashes that happen usually in the final 2/3 of the peleton, hence the commentators saying cadel has moved to the front with BMC to stay safe, losing time on a flat stage is massive

on a mountain stage its different as the main contenders know they can get time off of each other, but where sprinters faulter as they a poor climbers and finish a long time after the main players

so you will often see the yellow jerseys team take control and set a very quick tempo to ride people out of the race, thus limiting the attacks they have to counter, people who want to attack often said a man in the break way so when he falls back or he attacks and reaches him, he can be paced for a bit and ride on his wheel, this getting some slipstream and having to work less, it is then up to the other riders to counter this, some will follow his wheel while team sky have just upped the tempo so far and caught the attack in a few kms up the mountain, this is where cadel suffers and he usually only has 1 man with him while sky often has 3-5 riders in a bunch, hence any move is countered quickly and the main rivals cannot get time off of wiggins, even though they may be better climbers, but on these mountain stages due to the infighting of the favourites the break away often survives unless someone has gone who could prove to be a danger in the overall standing, thats why many riders will try and go it alone for a bit of glory on a massive mountain

basically a teams job is to get the leader to paris without crashing in the best finish possible over 3 weeks
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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

Wiggins looks to be in good form, but Cadel has two major things going or him this year. First, Cavendish will require sky to do a lot of chasing in the flat stages. Second, Wiggins having the strong team and good form means his team will have to chase down more of the mountain attacks. It could end up being a very even personal battle between the two in the mountains.

But then again, it is the tour - crashes, big breaks, flu breakout etc anything could happen.

I want to see Richie Porte do well too. He looked strong in the Dauphine.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Bomber »

More drug cheats being exposed. One of the "druggiest" sport there is!
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Re: Tour de France

Post by bapa »

Bomber wrote:More drug cheats being exposed. One of the "druggiest" sport there is!

Code: Select all

Frank Schleck, the elder of the two Luxemburger brothers prominent in professional road cycling over recent years, was withdrawn by his team from the Tour de France on Tuesday night after an announcement that a urine test following Saturday's stage had revealed the presence of Xipamide, a banned diuretic.

Schleck, 32, and his brother Andy, 27, made history last year when they became the first siblings to appear on the final podium of the Tour in Paris. Andy was second and Frank third behind the winner, Cadel Evans. Andy had been awarded victory in the 2010 edition of the race after that year's winner, Alberto Contador, was suspended and had his titles stripped following a positive test for clenbuterol but has missed this year's event through injury.

The winner of two individual stages of the Tour, in 2006 and 2008, Frank Schleck experienced a difficult first two weeks of this year's race, in which his brother did not compete as a result of an accident in the Dauphine stage race last month. Frank was lying in 12th place, 9min 45sec behind the leader, Bradley Wiggins, before his removal.

Xipamide is a sulfonamide used for the treatment of oedema, fluid retention and hypertension. The governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, informed Schleck of the result of the test on the A sample during the afternoon of the Tour's second rest day and requested his removal from the race. He has four days to request a test on the B sample.

His Radioshack Nissan Trek team issued a statement confirming the rider's withdrawal. "Even though an abnormal A sample does not require these measures, Mr Schleck and the team believe it is the right thing to do, to ensure the Tour de France can go on in calm and that Frank Schleck can prepare his defence in accordance with the legal timing to do so.

"On the subject of Xipamide the team can declare the following: it is not a product that is present in any of the medicine that the team use and the reason for the presence of the Xipamide in the urine sample of Mr Schleck is unclear to the team. Therefore the team is not able to explain the adverse findings at this point. However, the team is fully determined to co-operate with the anti-doping authorities in order to resolve the matter."

The brothers are the sons and grandsons of racing cyclists. Their grandfather, Gustav Schleck, rode in the 1930s and their father, Johnny, rode in seven Tours as a domestique and was in the teams of the 1969 winner, Jan Janssen, and of Luis Ocaña, the winner in 1973. In recent years the Luxembourg flags carried by their supporters have become a familiar sight on the Tour.

Frank Schleck had never given a positive test before Saturday but during the 2008 Tour – in which the elder brother wore the yellow jersey for two days – the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung claimed to have evidence of a payment of €7,000 three years earlier from Frank to the notorious doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, whose alleged involvement in doping was the subject of the Operación Puerto investigation in his native Spain. Fuentes denied any wrongdoing and said that his methods were perfectly legal.

Earlier in the race Johnny Schleck's car had been stopped and searched by French police but nothing was found.

Frank Schleck admitted making the payment to Fuentes, insisting it was simply for training advice. Temporarily suspended by his team, he was later cleared by the Luxembourg cycling authorities.

Radioshack Nissan Trek was created this year by a merger of a team set up by Lance Armstrong in 2010, during the second and last year of his comeback, and Leopard Trek, founded as a Luxembourg national project last year to provide a platform for the Schleck brothers. Their preparations for this Tour were accompanied by a public disagreement with Johan Bruyneel, formerly Armstrong's directeur sportif, who had taken over the same role in the new team.

This is the second drug incident to have emerged during the present Tour. The first, made public on the rest day following the opening week, resulted in the suspension of Rémy di Gregorio, a 26-year-old French rider with the Cofidis team, who was charged with "possession of banned substances or illegal devices". Di Gregorio insisted he has never doped.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

Cadel has cracked. He may get back to the Wiggins group on the descent but will almost certainly get dropped again on the final climb.
Hopefully Nibali can make a big move on Wiggins. Lets at least make the race for yellow somewhat interesting.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by bapa »

Cadels chances are gone!

Cmon wiggins!!!!
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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

DAM wrote:Cadels chances are gone!

Cmon wiggins!!!!
:wink:
Cadel won't make the podium I fear.
Voekler deserved that win. He rode those climbs so consistently strong.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Steve#4 »

Forgot about this, thanks Doc.

Do other team riders points they win, from a sprint/climb etc go to the team leader?

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Re: Tour de France

Post by bapa »

Cmon Wiggins....

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Re: Tour de France

Post by DOC »

Steve#6 wrote:Forgot about this, thanks Doc.

Do other team riders points they win, from a sprint/climb etc go to the team leader?
no thats a solo venture, hence why sagan and goss and griepel all chased intermediate sprint points when they could, well goss until the penalty, and why voeckler marked kessiakoff over the last 2 stages to ensure he won the KOM jersey

next year will be interesting as there are no olympics to distract people and riders like boonen and hushovd will be back, fuglsang will be on a new team

be interesting to see what the teams of the main contenders do

BMC might go with two challengers with cadel getting one more shot and VG a top 10 hope

why sky do with all that talent and keeping them happy

europcar could use a fit voeckler to lead out rolland

liquigas have sagan who many see as an all rounder and he could help nibali along with basso

lampre have counago and scarponi

lotto with VDB and griepel will be around the mark

both schlecks could be present

contador returns

would like to see one of the young frenchmen step up

and roche become more consistent and challenge for yellow


this tour did disappoint and no one really threw the gauntlet down to sky and they had done in other years to saxo bank and such
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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

I think Wiggins/Froome would win stages if they were actually forced to ride hard. Currently they don't have to do anything to win, and thats the safest bet.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by DOC »

maryusdemetry wrote:I think Wiggins/Froome would win stages if they were actually forced to ride hard. Currently they don't have to do anything to win, and thats the safest bet.
no one made them ride, nibali barely attacked, VDB barely attacked, cadel was off form and couldn't, rolland barely attacked
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Re: Tour de France

Post by rulebritannia »

Wiggo would've won last year too had he not crashed. Evans was lucky to win a soft race.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by God Is No Englishman »

DOC wrote:this tour did disappoint
No it didn't.
Join the revolution, throw yourself into the Frey!

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Stitch This »

rulebritania wrote:Wiggo would've won last year too had he not crashed. Evans was lucky to win a soft race.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda, didn't.
Time for some righteous indignation

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Re: Tour de France

Post by maryusdemetry »

No question cadel isn't right. He's riding like he was that year when he crashed and rode two weeks with a broken arm/clavicle....
Is this the end of his road? A man of his age.. Hit the peak of his career, new child, is the hunger still there to suffer day in day out? He's never been the most talented... Except for suffering... Lol
I would not be surprised if he retired at the end of the year. The irony would be that bmc then would be in the game for Froome

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Adolf Hįtler »

God Is No Englishman wrote:
DOC wrote:this tour did disappoint
No it didn't.
I don't think this year's will either.
When Saloth Sar gets banned for the reason you request Adolf Hitler to be banned I shall stop posting as Adolf Hitler.

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Re: Tour de France

Post by Steve#4 »

Addicted to this cabernet, still have no idea about the tactics but just love the pictures and commentary...

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Re: Tour de France

Post by God is an Englishman »

good to see the English leading the way again this year
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