Tour de France Contest

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by j6ppc

Epic. Great stage today. Behold the power of the yellow jersey.

This year is going to be interesting, that is for sure.

[mosesbotbol]

Curious to see how Cancellara does in the mountains? A day races and time trials he is hard to beat and has incredible will power. CSC is a team that could shield him, but the mountains can break you if you get into the red zone.

Cancellara could be the next Indurain:

-Stay in the mountains with the leaders
-Make up time in time trials
-Ride fast tempo on the flats

We'll see, he's fairly new in the big time sense, but has had a great last two years.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Curious to see how Cancellara does in the mountains? A day races and time trials he is hard to beat and has incredible will power. CSC is a team that could shield him, but the mountains can break you if you get into the red zone.

Cancellara could be the next Indurain:

-Stay in the mountains with the leaders
-Make up time in time trials
-Ride fast tempo on the flats

We'll see, he's fairly new in the big time sense, but has had a great last two years.

Big Mig was a machine!

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Curious to see how Cancellara does in the mountains? A day races and time trials he is hard to beat and has incredible will power. CSC is a team that could shield him, but the mountains can break you if you get into the red zone.

Cancellara could be the next Indurain:

-Stay in the mountains with the leaders
-Make up time in time trials
-Ride fast tempo on the flats

We'll see, he's fairly new in the big time sense, but has had a great last two years.

It was a hell of a win. To see a non sprinter Yellow lead the chase and then take the stage like that was something to watch!!! He will need to make up a lot of time in the time trials though. CSC could shield him to as point, but with Kloden and Vino attacking in the mountains, it will be tough. At some point he will be left alone and I do not see him being able to handle that.

I still like Valverde in the long run.

[stormin]

Another interesting end to a ho-hum day. Big mistake by the guys calling the shots for the sprint teams. I find that very disappointing. There is no excuse for not catching the break sooner. The peleton was just cruising along for most of the stage and the catch could/should have been easy.

Good ride by the man in yellow at the end, but it never should have come down to that.

[stormin]

Watching the sprint stages is like watching a basketball game. You only really need to watch the last 2 minutes. Its kind of a toss up as to what's more interesting. The mountain stages can have drama for extended periods of time, but it's normally all over before anyone hits the finish line. The sprints are the opposite. Nothing much happens until the very end, but if the teams play there cards right, the end certainly is exciting.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by stormin

Watching the sprint stages is like watching a basketball game. You only really need to watch the last 2 minutes. Its kind of a toss up as to what's more interesting. The mountain stages can have drama for extended periods of time, but it's normally all over before anyone hits the finish line. The sprints are the opposite. Nothing much happens until the very end, but if the teams play there cards right, the end certainly is exciting.

I used to watch them more closely, but this year, I have been sidetracked.

[j6ppc]

Originally Posted by stormin

Watching the sprint stages is like watching a basketball game. You only really need to watch the last 2 minutes. Its kind of a toss up as to what's more interesting. The mountain stages can have drama for extended periods of time, but it's normally all over before anyone hits the finish line. The sprints are the opposite. Nothing much happens until the very end, but if the teams play there cards right, the end certainly is exciting.

I usually watch the last 50KM or so of these. I don't expect the peleton will cut a break quite so much slack today.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55

It was a hell of a win. To see a non sprinter Yellow lead the chase and then take the stage like that was something to watch!!! He will need to make up a lot of time in the time trials though. CSC could shield him to as point, but with Kloden and Vino attacking in the mountains, it will be tough. At some point he will be left alone and I do not see him being able to handle that.

I still like Valverde in the long run.

Most likely he'll be dropped in the mountains, but that is partially up to him. Who would've thought he would win a sprint like he did? He should keep the yellow jersey until Sat first mountain stage; then we'll see who is who. He just has to keep up in the mountains. Not sure how far back Sastre is in the GC. Sastre is CSC's real hope for the podium.

[stormin]

Excellent sprint to the finish today.

The big 3 have all shown that they are ready and able to fight for the green jersey. Should be a good dogfight.

[Alpedhuez55]

Flecha would have been my pick for tomorrow. But he wasted too much energy today in the break.I think a break will stick. Look for a French Rider to try to get the PolkaDots in the break. I will go with Thomas Voelker or Nicolas Jalabert to try for that and leave it on the final climb. They will be joined in the break by some Domestiques who will be allowed to break free for the day. I will go with Axel Merckx to try to win the stage in his final tour and actually end up wearing the Yellow for a couple of days.

[stormin]

Thursday morning thoughts..........

What do you guys think about the electric gear shifting idea? Kind of cool, if it works. Would be a total pain for the average Joe though. Having to remember to charge the battery the day before you want to go for a ride would suck. I also think that the regular line ups from campy or shimano are quicker then they ever need to be for the normal everyday rider.

For a pro though......interesting idea.

Interestingly enough the announcers were talking the other day about how the governing bodies should re-visit the equipment rules and the minimum weight restriction in particular. Technological advancements have made it possible to build a safe bike well under the current minimum weight requirement, so why not change the rule? After all, the rule was originally put in place in order to protect the riders from equipment failure. Just my , but I disagree. I think they should keep it the same year after year for the big races like the Tour. As long as all the riders have to play by the same rules, why change it? If the equipment stays relatively unchanged from year to year then it gives you a good basis for comparison. This makes it possible for us to appreciate and marvel at Marco Panti's 37' 35" up Alpe d'Huez. I'm fairly confident that I could do it faster on a motorcycle, but is that relevant? If baseball changed to aluminum bats every Tom, Dick and Harry would beat Hank Aarons home run record.

[mosesbotbol]

My change to the race would be allow just one radio headset per team, all the radios take away from valiant breakaway efforts.

[j6ppc]

Great stage today. Cancellara is holding up quite nicely. He seems to be well on form- I know he's not supposed to be contending on GC but I'm starting to wonder if he might be turning into a dark horse pick.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by j6ppc

Great stage today. Cancellara is holding up quite nicely. He seems to be well on form- I know he's not supposed to be contending on GC but I'm starting to wonder if he might be turning into a dark horse pick.

I was reading the updates. It seemed like a wild downhill there at the end.