2011 Tour de France/Tour Tracker (threads merged)

No doubt roadies are hard as nails. Damn frog tv car takes out badass Juan Antonio "the Arrow" Flecha and Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland. Both men finish out the stage and Hoogerland takes the polka dot jersey.

Carnage

 

exactly what I was yelling this morning!

If they had hit Voekler, it would have been straight to the guillotine for driver!

 

Man today's stage was rough!!! I'm watching it on the DVR and I just watched the carnage of that left hand turn down the decent that took out Vino. Wow, I read over at Velonews that he broke his femur!!! This first week has been a tough one, the three that end up on the podium in France may be the only 3 riders left at this rate.

 

That's what I was thinking too. Finally paid the twenty buck for the full access coverage on versus.com, and have been catching up on all the stages. I don't think I've ever seen such a disaster-prone TdF.

 

Wow, what a first week! Don't remember the Tour being this exciting for a while. Contador is 4 minoutes plus down on GC with a bum knee (the time might not be that bad as Voelker will get dropped in the mountains at some point, but AC is still 1m 30 secs behind the Schlecks and Cadel. He has fallen pretty much on every stage so far. (Love how Karpets gave him a "Big Angry Russian" "get the f off of my a$$" shove on Stage 9). AC might be able to win if (1) he heals his knee, (2) he manages to stay upright. On the other hand the Schlecks and Cadel are riding a perfect Tour. They are riding like Tour winners. No accidents, always protected and always upfront. They were able to answer every AC attack so far (not that there were many...). I like that Voekler got into yellow for some French pride, though Thor was probably one of the best early yellow jerseys in a long time. He rode like a true World Champion, keeping up front to protect his jersey even on the hilly stages when sprinters of his size would have dropped. And of course not to forget Cavendish who just nails the sprints no matter what the naysayers say about him.

Hoping and assuming they are all ridiing clean, watching the likes of the Schleck brothers, Cancellara , Gilbert, Cadel Evans, Voekler, Thor and Cav makes me feel good and proud of our sport again! This is the generation that can bring back the good image of cycling and keep it damn exciting!

 

Phil Liggett made a remark that he wondered if it was intentional, so I watched and re-watched it a couple of times. I'm almost sure that it was an accident and AC's fault. It looks to me like AC hit/crossed Karpet's back wheel, the force of the impact jostled Karpet's and he reacts by leaning into the force (as you see in the video), then he looks back to see what's going on. Meanwhile, AC shifts hard left to try to uncross and recover but doesn't quite make it. I think Karpet's movement is the reaction to impact not the cause of the impact.

As for Hoogerland, ouch! Barbed-wire is designed to get the attention of huge, fat encased, leather and fur wearing, lumbering cows. Scrawny cyclists, with shaved legs, traveling fast and clad only in a few scraps of lycra will not fair well. I've had a lesser run-in with barbed wire but let me tell you... it's doesn't poke or stick or scratch... it rips you open!

 

OK... I'm lost here! This gesturing by winning riders as they cross the line is really getting out of hand. Either it has to stop or someone needs to publish an interpretive guide as to what exactly it all means. The AC pistol thing is irritating enough, but at least I get it. When Sanchez crossed the line the other day... what the heck was that? He crossed himself, sucked his thumb, mimed a pregnant belly and then pointed to the heavens?!?!?!

Thank you NFL!

 

Preggo wife I believe. Dedicated the stage to her.

 

Best picture from the Tour de France so far!!!!!! Go Chris!!!! I don;t think I'll be speaking out of hand when I say: Healing vibes to you from everyone at STR!

 

His pregnant wife, and one of his brothers, who passed away a few years ago...

 

Yes! That picture means it is officially OK to eat McDonalds after a race!!!!

 

I read a quote from AC saying "I had a problem with my handlebars, which knocked into another rider's saddle.". ...which I thought was funny, cause if his bars or stem were loose, he made no effort to switch bikes or have them tightened after he rode off into the grass and fell over. Beyond that, how could bars find their way into another riders saddle? So the problem was, you steered them into someone's butt? Hah. Dork.

& while the car & barbed wire was pretty horrific, I really feel bad for Vinokourov. That was just a terrible way to end a great career, and after the spirited performance the day before... damn.

 

Only if you 1st ride over 100 miles in under 4 hours! (and burn 6-8,000 calories per day), Then you can pretty much eat anything you want to

 

And only if you've just crashed out of a grand tour and have nothing to do but hard training once they allow you back on a bike. He probably hasn't had ice cream in a couple of months and the best he can do in France is a MickeyD's?

 

I just got caught up on my Tour viewage. Gotta say I was thrilled to see Greipel stick it to Cavendish yesterday. Truly mano-a-mano! Lotto putting the sting into Cav's lead out train by ramping the speed on the climb was great. Looks like Cav seriously suffers when he doesn't have his main lead out guys.
Today, Greipel started from too far back but suuure got awful close to Cav near the finish line.
Nice to see someone sticking it to him.

 

all the great sprinters have great lead-out men(teams). I have watched the "manx missle" take the sprints of many stage races and his burst of acceleration, after over 100 Km of racing is incredible. Most people, when faced with standing on the pedals after 100 Km will cramp and cry. Yes he has his lead -out team, including Goss, but he has the kick that makes him a stage winner.
Cippolini-eat your heart out.

















0

 

Ahhh The mountains....great stage today and great rides by all...Basso may be the dark horse this year? I am very impressed with how all the yellow jersey riders have defended the jersey....

 

nnnngaaaaaa.... now they're in the mountains! I've run into every bar & bike shop in PB and La Jolla looking for even ONE that opens mornings to show the tour, and all I get is glazed looks and ridicule. Even bought the "Full Access" pass but their streaming service can't handle the subscriber load, so, no access.

So far, I've actually seen 2 out of the 12 stages. And now they're in the mountains. Getting irritable here.

In Durango & Fort Collins, bars & shops would open early to aire the uncut live feed, serve breakfast & coffee, & even have sponsored raffles & schwag tosses & whatnot. It was like waking up to a bike race party every morning.

I guess I look forward to the day the bazillion dollar sponsors of the TdF insist that their money get the event seen worldwide, and it goes through Vimeo or Youtube... & while I'm dreaming, live, or better yet, with enough of a delay the director can cut back to the camera showing the best footage at any given time something interesting happens...

 

Lotsa sites on-line show the race live. Try this in the morning. http://www.fromsportcom.com/wv-2/10/16/v-301618.html
.

 

Your kung-fu is stronger than mine.
Thank you!