Tour De France - SPOILER ALERT!

French car was tossed. he'll be taking the fastest train out of there. Personally they should kick the whole station off to serve as an example. If they are going to be dangerous then they should not be allowed to have coverage.

messy messy messy day.

Close up pic of Hoogerland's injuries ...

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OMG...

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Cars hitting bikes is always funny.. classy mr smith.. classy.. douchebag

Catching up on my recorded stages and watched Stage 9 the other day where LL Sanchez took the stage. Anyone else get tired of the Spanish tactic of sitting on wheels in breaks and then right at the end coming around the guy who did all the work to keep the break away?

Sanchez did it to Voeckler, and I can't even count how many times I have seen it done by other Spanish riders. I can live with the tactic of not taking each and every turn to try and save something for an attack/sprint, and understand the fact that Voeckler had something to gain so make him work for it, but just blatantly not taking pulls and then coming around the guy that did all the work is just lacking in style...I just view it as sort of negative racing.

It is not just a Spanish thing... it is racing. If Voekler cared about the stage win more they had plenty of time to play track games but he wanted yellow and that was it.

I saw a guy a few years ago attack a guy in the break while he was zipping up his jersey.. you have to look for an advantage somehow.

Generally if the break is going to succeed they need to work together for almost the whole way.. if not then there is usually plenty of time to be strategic and can drop off and make the slacker work more.

Cav finally got to wear the Green Jersey today ... but tomorrow the real race starts.

I'm sure Contador will show his skill and strength and attack.

yeah, yeah, yeah...wheelsucking is part of racing. As I said, it's just weak racing, and the spaniards seem to do it the most. Sanchez sat on for 30km+, evidently the stage wasn't that important to him, because if it wasn't for Voeckler wanting yellow they would have been caught. Voeckler wanted the stage as well as yellow, but after all that work, didn't have it in the end. Sure, taking advantage of others weaknesses or misfortunes is part of racing, but there is something to be said for racing with panache.

Wow, what a stage! Very impressive to see Cadel match all those accelerations, but it may be all for nought as I can't see him beating the Schlecks. In any case I'd guess that's your podium.

Interesting to see Contador get dropped by the likes of Cunego. Its almost as if he was only so good in the past because he was using PEDs, and now he isn't. Fortunately the Spanish Cycling Federation has assured us all that isn't the case.

wow. It's been a great Tour for Garmin, especially with Thor's stage win... but too bad that Tyler Farrar has become a giant whiner

I don't know about what really did or didn't happen with Cavendish out the back of the laughing group, but I do know that innuendo with cameras isn't the best way to deal with it.

Thursday's going to be a great day for GC racing... can't wait!

berl wrote:wow. It's been a great Tour for Garmin, especially with Thor's stage win... but too bad that Tyler Farrar has become a giant whiner I don't know about what really did or didn't happen with Cavendish out the back of the laughing group, but I do know that innuendo with cameras isn't the best way to deal with it. Thursday's going to be a great day for GC racing... can't wait!

yea.. tyler went backpedalling at a full sprint today
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a commosaire motorcycle stayed with Cav the whole time. It is not like they just leave these guys alone out there.

Just cuz HTC rode on the front the entire day and still had more guys for the lead out than Garmin had for tyler is no reason to get all pissy about it ;) I think Tyler lost a lot of fans for that.

Thursday is going to be insane.. 3 HC climbs in a row. Then knowing they still Galibier AGAIN and Alp d'huez on friday..

I was climbing under the Col du Galibier today, It's a circus over there, Maybe 400 RV's all with their satellite dishes on their roofs ready and in positions. The circus is in town and it's about to get really exciting up here, I will be riding from La Grave to the Col du Lauteret to watch the madness since the road will be closed all day in and out of La Grave.

Pretty cool to see the energy in the town right now.

Joe, be sure to take some pics for us! I want you to verify that Cav isn't holding onto the team car when he goes by.

Cool! that would be tons of fun. Climbing, riding and seeing the pro's hammer up a big frikken mountain.

Joe,

I wanna see you in the first chase group!

jack roberts wrote:Joe, I wanna see you in the first chase group!

please for the love of bob keep your pants on!

Not looking good around here,

Snow too about 2600 meters or so. I didn't see the sun all day yesterday, and looking at the col du lautaret from my house it seems like things might be getting white up there.

Kind of sucks because I had to resort to that other kind of climbing where you put those clippy things in those metal hook thingies that are already in the rock. It's hard to consider that climbing when your sitting under Ecrin National Park and at least 100 different diamonds to choose from :-(

Better then nothing I guess, but climbing while in a puffy is no fun either, Seriously, it's cold here and the weather is not looking good tomorrow either. I might be the guy ski touring past the Tour up the Col Du Galibier tomorrow, LOL

Great day for Andy today. I hope to see an encore performance tomorrow. I look for Frank to help out with the pace tomorrow for insurance purposes. What a great event so far!

Dave Holliday wrote:Great stage today. I'm guessing that Leopard Trek and the other top teams now regret letting Voeckler go up the road on stage 9. He will no longer be given that freedom in a grand tour.

Nah, they're probably happy that he's had the pressure of wearing the jersey. And, while his performance has been extremely impressive and far beyond what anyone thought he was capable of, he's not a true threat to the GC contenders by virtue of his abilities, which is slowly becoming more apparent as his hold on the jersey is being whittled away.

The way the others had ridden until today is the reason it appeared he might actually stand a chance. If Frandy Schleck had had the guts to lay down a serious attack earlier or Contador were in form; the Cinderella story would've been over much sooner.

Having said all that, it would've been great to see him ride in to Paris triumphantly. I was rooting for him if for no other reason than to teach some of the current GC guys to stop being pansies and race.

I'm out of touch here; when is the race over?? This week or end of month?

Crag Dweller wrote: I was rooting for him if for no other reason than to teach some of the current GC guys to stop being pansies and race.

I think AC's blowup today suggests that he couldn't really have done any more racing today or earlier in the tour anyway, and Evans has been pretty active, although today's chase was a bit of a cluster.
The time gaps today are exactly why the contemporary GC tactics are what they are- it's less effective to wear yourself out gaining a handful of seconds if someone is going to take 4 minutes out of you on one of the real mountain stages.

Tomorrow should be some exciting racing- if Frank rides hard for Andy and Voeckler explodes, there is room on the podium for Basso or maybe cunego or a resurgent AC.

ATC: the tour finishes with the usual (almost) ceremonial sprint stage in Paris on Sunday, Friday is the last road stage (including some awesome climbs) and Saturday is an individual time trial.