2007 tour de france

[gila]

[ QUOTE ]
Rasmussen is the most insane climber ever

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree he is a great rider, but most insane ever? Have you seen the pirate? Or Armstrong? Basso? Those are the three best climbers I have seen. Rasmussen is up there, but not quite at their level. Armstrong was just sick good. He could bridge gaps at will and ride away from anyone, at any time.

And as far as Rasmussen, he won't have another break away like that. He will have to beat Vino, Sastre, and Valverde, and the others on a level playing field from now on. No more break aways for him on this tour.

[Phanekim]

correct gila. Rasmussen is never reeled in cause he's never a legit gc threat. Even with a lead now he isn't.

Bad tactics by Astana. How typical of Kloden to go back for Vino.

Bad tactics by everyone else. They could have finished Astana today, espeically valverde and they blew it.

Everyone's touting contador. They should, he's rider of future. The plan was to stay with the favorite, which levi did. This final climb isn't that bad. Lots of flat sections on the final climb. Next stage which has basicallly 30 km uphill should be way more interresting. If you are not good on tuesday you won't win. the galibier is hard.

But yes, contador is young. He doesn't have the legs yet.

[brettkc]

i was really hoping to see vino/kloden launch an attack once i saw astana move to the front on the final climb with 4 members. Moreau has been fun to watch this year he was really aggro in the dauphine and i like what he did today. Valverede and company is gonna be kicking themselves if vino comes back into this race they could have put alot more time in him today

[gila]

[ QUOTE ]


Bad tactics by Astana. How typical of Kloden to go back for Vino.

Bad tactics by everyone else. They could have finished Astana today, espeically valverde and they blew it.



[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, Kloden is very loyal, maybe to a fault. It's amazing, how he used to pull Ulrich up the Mountain, and yet would still finish close or even ahead of him. Like the year he got second in the tour, while looking out for Ulrich the whole time. It would be fun to watch him as a leader of a good team. I really think he should have won the race last year, but T-mobile made so many mistakes (as it seems they always did).


And yes, Valverde, and some others in that group, really blew it today. They could have put minutes in-between Kloden and Vino. They should have really kicked Vino while he was down. He is not one to let hang around if you want to win. He always has some bad days, but his good days are REAL good. They better hope he has another bad day at some point. I wouldn't want to go into the mountains next week with only a few minutes on him. You would think Valverde would have learned his lesson in Spain last year.

I think, besides Rasmussen, Moreau looked the strongest today. Although Mayo flying off was impressive as well. I really hope Mayo has a good tour, he has looked so bad for so long.

[brettkc]

good point with valverde not learning his lesson in the vuelta. If you watched that stage live when vino attacked him on the descent it was impressive. Valverde suffered liek a dog to make it up the climb then was like 200 yards from vino on the descent and vino attacked him on the descent it was fun to watch the whole vuelta was fun to watch.

[Victor]

"BTW doping doesn't really affect the one-day performances that much in road cycling; the huge effect is on recovery. Guys like Virenque never could have attacked day after day without help. Perhaps this year we'll see more guys crack really bad after big efforts."

times still improve from doping/roids.

If I were to pick a favorite based on yesterday's stage it would actually have to be Contador. He looked incredibly strong and the way he rode after the unfortunate puncture was downright scary and brought back memories of Armstrong and Riis.
He looked even stronger than he did earlier in the season.
I'm also certain that he is one of the riders who still uses doping which should at least give him an edge over (maybe lol) some of the riders.

Rasmussen is also stronger than ever and make no mistake about it, he IS riding for the gc this year. The way he didn't bother celebrating at the finish line and just continued to ride hard was a clear signal.
Time will tell whether he will have a bad day. I have no doubt he will continue to attack though, even with the yellow jersey, since he knows he will need a lot more time before the time trials.

It will also be very interesting to see who can ride the best time trial within those in contention.
The obvious answer is Kloden and it's idiotic that Astana risk him STAYING in contention by having him wait and work for Vino.
I'm not saying he could have stayed with the other favorites but it definitely looked like he was stronger than Vino at least.


I guess the greatest climbers of all time are those who despite their obvious handicaps actually managed to win the whole thing. Pantani, Van Impe and Gaul.

Someone who didn't and many consider the greatest natural climber of all time was Herrera.

Armstrong, Basso, Indurain, Hinault, Merckx and etc etc don't really qualify as climbers in the classic sense (grimpeurs) since they were very complete all around riders.

I will say though that I've rarely seen anyone with the acceleration uphill that Armstrong had when at his best.

I've been a huge cycling fan for a long time and probably watched almost every stage for the last 18 years but last year and this year were the first few times I wasn't very interested at all. I don't mind doping really in itself, I've known for at least 12 years how things work in cycling but when the results started depending on who was caught and who wasn't then the sport, for me, loses some of its value.

This year's edition looks very interesting though, with so many interesting riders to watch at a somewhat similar level. So I'm hooked again for now.

[brettkc]

good points. People seem to be overlooking that VINO infact can do a very strong ITT especially if its a difficult one. Wasn't contador listed somewhere with the operacion puerto scandal? I believe I read this somewhere but it never really gained much attention.

I think he was last year, but then again many names were and I haven't heard much about it since. He is certainly not one of the many riders banned/exluded.

With Valverde on the other hand, french media in particular, continue to link him with Puerto.

[Victor]

what about moreau? he looked very strong i thought.