2011 Tour de France/Tour Tracker (threads merged)

What a race today. Gutsy performance by AC and TV as well though he list the jersey. Feel bad for Sanchez to put all that work in at the end only to have Rolland take advantage. Hope Andy can hold off Evans tomorrow. Cadel is a boring rider.

 

I know that most people who train for racing, focus a lot of training the aspect that limits their cycling ability. Has Andy been working hard on his TT skills all year? I think I remember him surprising a lot of people last year during the final TT. Will we be surprised again this year?

 

Kudo's to vlad for being the most accurate in his picks....

 

Can't believe we're going to have another '89 Lemond/Fignon style showdown tomorrow. Can't wait.

 

I was going to hold back my final thoughts on this Tour until Paris, but I can’t help myself after the Alpe d’ Huez today. At the start of the Tour I wanted either the Schlecks or Cadel to win – one of them definitely will, and regardless of what happens in Paris, Cavendish has proven that he is one of the best, if not the best, sprinter of our generation. As such I’m thinking the last two stages will not change my opinion that this was the best Grand Tour in the last several years!!!!

Some folks here on STR are saying it was boring, lame, but I can’t agree. From the start it was amazing:

- Philip Gilbert, one of the best one dayers around, riding his first Tour, winning the first stage in classics territory, in classics style.

!!!! Tyler Farrar winning on the Fourth of July !!!!

Garmin Cervelo wins the Team Time Trail, several stage wins and dominates the Tour as a Team. Bravo Jonathan Vaughters – you’ve waited a long time for this!!

And then there is THOR!! THOR!! THOR road like the World Champion he is. Picking up bottles for his teammates, cranking it out as part of Tyler’s leadout train, and then winning two breakaway stages under a sky of Norwegian flags! Cadel was a great world champion last year, but Thor stole the show!!! (By the way, isn’t “Thor” the best name for an athlete, well OK maybe since “Lance”. )

The HTC echelons leading out Cavendish were beautiful and perfect, Teamwork at its best! If Stapelton can’t find a sponsor this year he should just take the team out on the corporate speaking circuit, preaching teamwork and making a sh!tlaod of money …

Last year we wanted and this year we waited for the Cavendish vs Gripel showdown and in this TdF we finally got it. Cav got the upper hand a couple more times this time around, Gripel got his win, but both of their emotional responses were great. Funny that they are respecting each other more now that they are racing against each other than last year when they were on the same team.

Yes, Cav, Cavendish, the Manxman. Another 4 down, possibly 5 if he takes Paris. What I love about Cavendish is how he sucks during the beginning of the year, how everyone berates him and then how he bends them all over and slams a big one to all the naysayers, in the only place it really counts, at the Tour de France. Even Cippolini finally took his hat off to Cavendish at this Tour.

Then there was watching the fall of the King, literally, as Contador , for all practical purposes, lost the Tour cause he couldn’t stay upright for a good part of the first two weeks. Did he loose in the end because this is the first Tour he is riding clean, did he loose because the other main contenders are just so much better, or did he just bang-up that knee so much that he was in the pain he says he was? Guess only he will know, and CAS will have to say whether last year was or was not clean.

Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans. Both deserve to Win!!! I love Andy because he rode like a true champion the last two days, understanding that in order to win he would have to do the extraordinary, and he did. Andy Schleck should win this Tour based upon how he rode it! Cadel seems to always be the one trying to catch-up and seems to be allergic to attacking in the mountains, but how can you not like the guy as he is a former mountain biker (that actually use to race up at Big Bear in the 90’s, in the good old days when the best of the world used to race at Big Bear).

Hoogerland and his barbed wire crash!!!! Last year it was Voigt, and this year Hoogerland defined what “Tough as Nails” is. Sorry major league sports and you padded up NFL players who jump on a stretcher whenever you break a fingernail. This dude has a “straight to the hospital if you are a mere mortal” crash, and what does he do? He gets up, finishes the stage, gets bandaged up and then goes on to continue racing for a week and a half after that (yes, including riding a bike over the Alps!). Now we finally have a name and face to associate with the famous saying: Pain in Temporary, Glory is forever = Johnny Hoogerland.

And then there is finally Voeckler!!!! Has there been a bike racer who has captured the hearts of fan around the world more than this dude has? Fighting and fighting where most would have given up. Bringing French pride back into the Tour de France. And doing so with such humility and emotion. He then pulls the ultimate act of gracefulness today and it pays off in such a movie script way: Knowing that he lost yellow, instead of keeping his trusted lieutenant (who was around him the entire Tour and saved his ass multiple times) next to him as he was dropping back, he releases him and tells him to ride on and go for it. Rolland, breaks away and goes on to win the most prolific stage of the Tour, a Frenchman winning on the infamous Alp d’ Huez, shaking hands after the award ceremony with an old Bernard Hinault, the previous French winner of the Alp d’ Huez, who one before Rolland was born! I give the French a week to sober up after this one (when they will probably start writing a book about the last three weeks). Watch out for Voeckler in 2012 – he will win the next Tour.

Yes, the fans also won big time. Watching the fans along the road on a steep climb always gives me goose bumps. Absolutely no sport anywhere has that insane interaction between fans and athletes. I can just imagine the deafening roar the racers must be going through. Yesterday I was riding back from the Rose Bowl and a couple of other cyclists standing next to their car on Descanso drive started yelling “Allez, Allez” at me. Made me feel good and I cranked out an extra couple of watts. Take that multiply it by hundreds of thousands and put it on a big ass mountain in the Alps.

But the true winner of this year’s Tour de France is really Cycling!
I sure pray, hope and pray more that this year’s main protagonists raced clean. This is the new generation who promotes it’s clean racing. If so, the way Cycling Has Won this Tour de France is because they have proven without a doubt that cycling can be exciting as hell, that’s its in incredible sport, and that its athletes can do incredible, unbelievable things, not through chemical enhancements, but through the power of their teamwork, bodies, will and courage!

 

Has anyone else noticed that no other riders help Cadel? Andy has a whole team to leap frog up Galibier; Alberto's best friend seems to be Sanchez (and his team isnt ever around at the end).

What has Cadel done to not have any friends in the peloton?

 

I am very happy to see Cadel win, and I really like Any too, but Cadel was the strongest and most consistent over the course of the tour. He made the least errors, did what needed to be done when it needed to be done AND he flat out took control when needed without help.

Why no friends...actually there aren't a lot of friends there are teams, we are happening to see 2 amazing brothers and the Spanish have always stuck together, but Cadel had a *good* team not a great one and of course the greatest Domestic of all time George, he had what he needed and performed.

Ohh BTW...that's one for the MTBers too!

If you want to see the difference there were a few corners in the TT where Cadel ***flew*** around them and the Schleks just could not match.

 

I kind of wanted to Andy win after the attack he pulled off.

Its strange to think he probably lost one what was an easy day in mtns compared to the days he did well.

 

At the start I thought Levi would win it but once he was out of contention I went with Cadel. Mostly because of his over all ability but also because I knew he could beat the Schlecks in a TT. Andy has had a couple outstanding TT's but when Cadel has made up his mind, he's hard to stop. Cadel earned the victory and even though his team fell apart on the Alps he was still sticking to his plan.

Andy asked him to pull and Cadel told him no. They didn't help him when he was battling the wind so why should he help them? Cadel is a likeable enough guy. Most racers don't dislike him but he doesn't have a lot of countrymen with him like most the other teams do.

The French scored big on this tour with Tommy V in yellow for 9 or 10 days and Pierre Rolland winning stage 19 climbing Alpe d'Huez. But Cadel wins big for Australia. North American didn't do great but Tom Danielson managed a top 10 victory with a 9th place finish. I'll always wonder what would of happened had Chris managed not to have crashed and Levi disappeared. Spain did well with Sammy and Alberto in the top 10 too.

This to me was one of the better tours I've watched and I would of loved to seen Chris Horner win it, I'm glad Cadel finally got a win. And even though Contador had a tough time this year I loved his fighting spirit, a true champion.

 

Congrats to an X 2-time mtb champion and now, Le Tour champion. He raced a solid (albeit dull) tactical race. Everything was impressive but the crying. That's not worthy of an X mtn bike champion. Did you have to, Cadel?

 

I wonder if Cadel would ever ride the Leadville 100. We all saw how well Levi did and he is not even a ex mountain bike world champ or ex MTB racer for that matter. My guess is that he would crush it.

 

I think it's kinda moot. He just won the hardest race in the world. No doubt he'd shatter it considering Grand Tour guys like Lance, Levi etc just used it as a off season play thing. I hope he lets the Mtbers have some glory.

Now if some of those guys did something like the BC bike race that'd be something.

 

A great way to finish. Evans deserved the win. He came out fighting early on and continued to fight all the way through. He led the leaders up most of the climbs and only refused to help out on Alp d'Huez when he was outnumber 2 -1 by Schlecks. I don't think there was really much doubt that he'd get 2 seconds/km out of Andy today. He killed it.

I do feel bad for Andy. He could have won easily. I think Leopard should have gone with Frank as a domestique instead of the two leader approach. I think they sacrificed the win to have brothers on the podium -- it is kind of cool though. I think everyone may have gone through the Pyrenees too easily and someone should have struck then and put everyone on the defensive in the Alps and then controlled the race.

Eh, monday morning quarterback.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I don't think Contador had the legs to get away in the Pyrennes nor the support (his team hates him) but the Schlecks let their opportunity ride away. Had the brothers sacrificed one of themselves, they'd of sure had the top spot. Still my hats off to them as they are truly remarkable.

 

Andy Shleck...seems he is always the bridesmaid. Congrats to Evans..what an impressive TT. I agree the tatics of leopard trek may have cost them the race..My true hero of the tour was Voechler...he gave it his all...

 

just finished watching le tour (taped). Cadel was cornering like a true champion mtn and road biker. He just seemed to be one with the road. A big hat off to Andy..strong tour again and someday he'll win it. Great tour to watch...just now watching Cadel pull on the yellow...tears of joy seem to be welling in his eyes...tears of..............victory!

 

A big high five for Cadel, He is such a true ambassador of cycling and he has two UCI world titles to go with his new Yellow shirt! I'm sure he will wear it well and BMC is an american team! Nice Job! It is a bummer that a few of the top GC guys got hurt!

 

I'm so glad you wrote exactly what I was feeling! Andre Greipel and Cav going head to head was great. No lead out train, just plain old mano a mano, head down stomping the pedals redemption for Andre! Cuz Cav said he only wins 'shit small races'.
Voeckler! I loved him in 2004 and I love him even more now! His expression as he crossed the line saving the jersey by 15 seconds made me tear up.
Continuing to fight to hold top 5 was fantastic!
Contador attacking because! Andy attacking and making it stick. Cadel leading the peloton so many times because he had to save his Tour.
Loved this Tour! Loved it!

 

This had to be my favorite moment...AC living up to his attitude. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Video-Three-time-Tour-champion-punches-fan-duri?urn=top-wp213

 

I'm no big AC fan or anything but wouldn't most people have a similar reaction? He was deep in suffering, trying to get up the steep mountains and some wise-ass in a lab suit decides to stick a bag of fake-blood practically in his face and wouldn't stop. I personally would've done the same, if not worse. He's entitled to personal space and the respect to race fairly without being blinded by some ass-jack. As Phil noted, "they've been drinking for 72 hrs. now."