Tour de France

forzaminardi

The most beautiful sporting event of the year is well on its way and we are about to get serious as today the peloton will face the first mountains. Will Lance prevail? Grab your coffee, sit down in front of the telly and enjoy as some nutcases cycle up the steepest bits with tarmac on it for hours and hours.

Minardi4eva

Ive been watching it as much as i can.
Yesterdays stage 8 was one of the best finishes in ages, Pieter Weening just edging Andréas Kloden on the line

My predictions for final postitions are:

Winner Lance, 2nd Ullrich, 3rd Vinokourov

White Jersey - Karpets

Green Jersey - Hushovd

Polka Dot Jersey - Rasmussen

Jello_Biafra

Lance goes well in the mountains, right?

Homer

Voigt has got the yellow one! :D

MCSF

It is a long race. Wearing and KEEPING the yellow jersey is a lot of pressure. Should be interesting to see if our man Lance can pull it back in the mountains. Or the individual time trial.

forzaminardi

my money is on vinokourov!

Homer

Well, I think it's clear that Lance will win again, but it's good to see such a nice boy like Voigt wearing the yellow jersey.

oznomad

Got the impression that Armstrong wasn't unhappy about handing over the yellow this early on in the tour.

MCSF

Thats my point - just like any other race. You just have to be first at the finish!

Biker

These three weeks could be the best weeks for mee. I have entered in various competitions and love to see them climbing those mountains.
Discovery Channel (the other DC;)) had a complete off-day last saturday, except for Armstrong. Therefore I can't understand why they didn't attack him sunday. It's the only way to beat him: continous attack. I respect Lance as a great Tour de France-cyclist but I would love to see someone else winning. Vinokourov and Basso are my favourites to do that.

Let the Alps commence!!

Biker

What about this for a finish (last saturday)?:



A great Dutch win (over a German;))

Minardi4eva

^^ thats the finish i was saying was the best finish ive seen in years.

MCSF

DC was not attacked because they were pulling the train up front - pulling at an incredible pace. Sort of letting the rest of the field know that Saturday's failure of DC domestiques was a fluke.

Stan

Turned out the difference on that finish was only 9.6 milimeters :O

Biker

DC was not attacked because they were pulling the train up front - pulling at an incredible pace. Sort of letting the rest of the field know that Saturday's failure of DC domestiques was a fluke.

Hahahaha, the pace was so incredible that Rasmussen on his own could maintain the same pace. Not impressive at all.
But we'll see today. I hope sincerely that T-Mobile will not be afraid to attack because of Ullrichs fall last Sunday.
Respect is ok, but Lance and his team are human, so let them bleed!

forzaminardi

after that stupid day off they had yesterday it's time to get serious today! up to Courchevel on a bike... rather them than me!

MCSF

Yes i do believe the pace was strong enough and DC, after their dressing down, was not going to allow any breaks and made it known throughout the peloton.

RE the skinny kid from Rabobank - where is his muscle? Man - he looked straight out of a concentration camp!

forzaminardi

my word, what a disaster for t-mobile today. good I refrained from putting anything more than verbal money on vino!

this magnussen guy is really good!

Biker

Yeah, Rasmussen surprises, as does Valverde, but Armstrong rules. Sniff...

Jello_Biafra

Quite the turnaround for Team Discovery! This Lance guy.. wow. Rasmussen and Valverde were great to watch too.

Jens. :(

Stan

my word, what a disaster for t-mobile today. good I refrained from putting anything more than verbal money on vino!

this magnussen guy is really good!

I didn't know Magnussen quit car racing and started cycling :D

MinardiP1

I'm really getting in to it this year. Don't really care who wins, I just like watching the French scenery that we Antipodeans don't really get to see at all.

The mountain passes they are currently going thru at the moment make me want to take my Evo to Europe and have some fun. :hehe:

Homer

Vogt has to quit..... that's not fair! HE was f**ing ill and only 43 scounds too slow and they did DQ him..... :spank: :mad:

Minardi4eva

but he finished 40 odd MINUTES behind today. He knows the rules. So bye bye Vogts

FactyCrab

rasmussen and basso must be watched instead of the vinos and the ullrichs...

expect lance to win his seventh by the narrowest of margins...

MCSF

I'm not sure Rabobank has the depth to keep Rasman at the front - lets say for example he goes on a runer - Lance could send some of the boys to sit on his wheel and snap him as his Team may not be able to help.

Just a thought - I like this kid as he has balls and my Spaniards have fallen flat. I once was a huge ONCE fan and they have become flat.

However, the Pyranees are coming so maybe my friends at Eukatel will give us a bit of a show.

Homer

but he finished 40 odd MINUTES behind today. He knows the rules. So bye bye Vogts

Yeah, but if you had 40° fever together with shivering fit the night befor the race....

MCSF

Or crappy Michelin tires at Indy....come on man keep up or drop out!

You namby pamby types that want all things equal - whay do you follow ANY sport?

Homer

Now, now, let's stay serieus.

Rules are rules, fine, but I think you might understand that we in Germany are very dissapointed, right?

I have a hell of respect for everybody taking part at the Tour de France because I know for sure that I wouldn' survive it. And this is the reason why this case makes me so upset, because Vogt had to fight and he did - for nothing.

I will accept it, I have no choice, but I think I have a right to be angry about this, right?

What would you think if something like that would happen to Lance?

MCSF

Shit happens. There is nothing that could be done to prevent a virus like that - you still have some hope in the east german....well kinda.

Homer

hope in the east german

now, that's what I call a contradiction :hehe: