2007 tour de france - Page 3

Phanekim · #21 07-12-2007, 05:29 PM

Anybody who follows cycling knows Fabian wasn't losing the yellow today.

He's a tremendous classics rider and today was a classics type stage.

Stage 7 is gonna be when he loses it.

Kloden has a broken tailbone and vino should be fine. he alwyas does bad first day in big mtns though. Kloden...tialbone shouldn't effect his riding altho should be very painful.

Also vino got lucky on the downhill. Its easier to gain on the downhill if you aren't in one big group.

Victor · #22 07-12-2007, 06:04 PM

wow i cant imagine cycling thousands of miles with a freakin broken tailbone.

brettkc · #23 07-12-2007, 06:56 PM

VINO is riding with a chip on his shoulder with what happened to him last year and i dont see 1:30 stopping him from putting people into serious trouble in the mountains. If you've watched him ride in the vuelta last year and the dauphine this year he is a monster in the mountains and will attack non stop until he gets away.

Phanekim · #24 07-12-2007, 07:21 PM

Vuelta's final climbs are slightly weaker and the stages are less strenuous.

In this year's Dauphine, vino never showed any real strength in the real mtn stages. The stages he should were the hilly ones that he usually breaks aways and wins.

His TDF mtn history has also been spotty. He has never really been strong in the big mtn stages. He usually isn't a good starter (dropping tons of minutes) in first big mtn stages.

Altho, this is all against doped competition. However, he's been under close scrutiny with the whole men in black scandal. I highly doubt he'd be able to dope this tour much less anyone else. French doping authorities are the most stringent.

I always thought kloden was a better bet...however as you saw today, they only sent 1 man to bring him back whereas they sent the entire time to get vino back. Sponsors and team are all behind vino.

If you ask me, its a duel between levi and kloden.

brettkc · #25 07-12-2007, 07:24 PM

there is no way levi wins the tour, id be shocked to see him on the podium if you ask me contador could do better in GC if they designated him the team leader

Phanekim · #26 07-12-2007, 07:49 PM

contador is a little bit too young to last long in a 3 week tour. Prime endurance event years are quite later in life. This is due to the different muscles being used. Valverde is quite young but faded in last year's vuelta.

Although, contador has a bright future. But not this year, Levi helped him win Paris-Nice and helped Hincapie win the US championships. Levi's been racking up the favors within the team. This is Levi's time and team for now.

SluggerWV · #27 07-12-2007, 08:21 PM

it is on vs

Phanekim · #28 07-12-2007, 08:28 PM

if you dont have directtv...try

www.myp2p.eu

cbloom · #29 07-13-2007, 10:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true; the short-term fans who didn't really like cycling may be gone, but the American cyclists are loving it. It's been a great tour so far, really dramatic. BTW the doping thing is so overblown; it's no different than baseball or any olympic sport 10 years ago, they're just actually getting caught in cycling.

It seems like there are way more stupid crashes this year and I was wondering if it was related to all the first timers messing up the peloton; supposedly 35% of the field is in the Tour for the first time, which is the highest percent ever.

It's gonna be really interesting when they hit the mountains; at this point we have no idea really who's going to shine.

JaredL · #30 07-14-2007, 12:22 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true; the short-term fans who didn't really like cycling may be gone, but the American cyclists are loving it. It's been a great tour so far, really dramatic. BTW the doping thing is so overblown; it's no different than baseball or any olympic sport 10 years ago, they're just actually getting caught in cycling.

It seems like there are way more stupid crashes this year and I was wondering if it was related to all the first timers messing up the peloton; supposedly 35% of the field is in the Tour for the first time, which is the highest percent ever.

It's gonna be really interesting when they hit the mountains; at this point we have no idea really who's going to shine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. I like Lance so watching him dominate was a lot of fun. From a cycling perspective though, the Tour has gotten a lot better because it's gone from "Can Ullrich/Beloki/Basso find a way to beat Armstrong?" where the odds heavily favored an answer of no to "Which of these few guys can win? Does one of these 5 outside favorites have a reasonable chance?"

It's much more open and exciting. The problem with Lance for the neutral viewer is that he was the best in both the mountains and the time trials. When one guy is the best at both of those he has to screw up or get unlucky with a crash or something to lose. This year for example, the best time trialist has basically no chance because he's not good enough in the mountains.

On that note I really wish Roberto Heras were still riding. I really liked that guy. I haven't been following cycling that long but my two favorite stages ever are the 2002 Tour de France stage from Pau to La Mongie where Heras set an incredible tempo on the last climb and destroyed the field other than Lance and Beloki and the mountain ITT that was the second to last stage in the 2003 Vuelta. He'll probably be too old but he should be back next year from his suspension.