Tour De France 2007

[Grahaml]

Evans is good going downhill and on the flat stages, while some of the others, such as Rasmussen struggle with both. The downhill section will give Evans a good chance to either catch up if he loses touch, or to move ahead if he's with them. With another day of mountains tomorrow, and that being another tough uphill finish Evans must be worried about a repeat of last night and he won't be able to hold out hope of making 5 minutes on Rasmussen or 4 minutes on Contador in the time trial. Status quo he has a chance. Anything he can get today he might consider a buffer tomorrow. But what happens remains to be seen. He's really in trouble with no team mates capable of helping. That Horner bloke is doing well just to stay in touch over some of the big climbs, but he's not doing much more than being there should Evans need a new bike in a hurry. 1 good strong team mate to stay with him at least part way up the final big climbs may well cost him the tour.

[devilsadvocate]

Gents

Finally back after a long stint of downtime with crappy ITV reception! Stupid pommy weather!!!

Cadel looks pretty well cooked after losing another 57 seconds today adding to his deficit from yesterday. Anything could happen before the final time trial which is also the longest. Cadel will go in favourite, but won;t be able to make up his current 3 minute deficit there alone.

Great win by Vino today. Remarkable for a man with 60+ stitches in his body! Showed exactly why everyone had him pencilled in as favourite from the start. If he hadn't had such a shocker yesterday, who knows? He'll have to come back next year to try again.

There's a LOT of talk over here about Rasmussen missing 2 out of competition drug tests. Everyone is saying the organisers should have thrown him out from the start. I personally think everyone should shut the FFFF up about drugs in le tour. Test everyone every day, or don't test anyone at all.

[Stumps]

Yeah two average stages in a row for Cadel and now some 4" behind rasmussen. A rest day today may just give him the legs for a big stage 16 the last in the pyrenees. He will need to gain some ground I dont think he can rely on catching 4" in the TT, however Rasmussen and Contador are superior climbers and he will struggle. It was a tough effort last night and Vino showed his true class- mind you I think he had probably counted himself out of a GC win - and conserved energy sunday (where he lost some 20 minutes) so he could pull off another stage win yesterday- that is 2 stage wins for Vinoukorov and Team Astana are leading the teams points competition- a successful tour for the powder blues. Speaking of team colours- why the hell do some teams- noteably Saunier Duval- where such bright yelow shirts- so similar to the race leader! silliness

STUMPS

[Grahaml]

It looked like Evans and his teammate were actually plotting something. Evan's can't accelerate like Rasmussen and Contador so perhaps he should try to get the pace moving a little faster and see how they cope with that. Evans looks good for 3rd, and might get Contador in the TT but all depends on tonight's stage.

[Ecky]

It looked like Evans and his teammate were actually plotting something. Evan's can't accelerate like Rasmussen and Contador so perhaps he should try to get the pace moving a little faster and see how they cope with that. Evans looks good for 3rd, and might get Contador in the TT but all depends on tonight's stage.

Rest day tonight. Last day in the mountains tomorrow night.

[Grahaml]

Forgot about that. Meant the next stage.

[devilsadvocate]

Speaking of team colours- why the hell do some teams- noteably Saunier Duval- where such bright yelow shirts- so similar to the race leader! silliness
STUMPS

That shits me to tears! Why the hell would tdf organisers allow them to wear that jersey? So damn confusing. Plus, why would you want to wear a yellow jersey if you weren't leading the race even if they are your team (read 'sponsors') colours?

Although, I wonder how happy Michael Rogers is at wearing that faggy bright pink strip?!!!

[Stumps]

Spot on - we should start a petition

[Grahaml]

Different events have different jersey colours for the different categories. In the Giro D'Italia the leader wears pink. No team would have a colour that wasn't similar to an events leaders jersey for one of the categories and no team would be happy to change colours from one event to another. I understand the confusion (even Phil Liggett gets confused, but I think he's getting senile) but unfortunately the solutions aren't viable.

[am Bays]

Vinokourov and his team are out/have quit of the tour, Vinokourov's A sample from the time trial has found to indicate an illegal blood tranfusion.

It is a great sport but gee its shootingitself in teh foot until thew ICU brings in complulsory blood tests and cleans up the sport.

Watching the tour has been compulsory for me as it is a great event to watch and they are awesome athletes but gee itspoils it when you know some of them are getting that extra 5% help from illegal biochemical products.

[devilsadvocate]

Tassie, couldn't believe it when I read your post, but bugger me - this is a cut and paste from letour's website:

LE TOUR DE FRANCE OBTAINS THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE ASTANA TEAM

The organisers of the Tour de France have been informed by Marc Biver, the manager of the Astana team, about the positive test of Alexandre Vinokourov on the day of the time trial stage in Albi. At the request of Patrice Clerc, President of A.S.O., the Astana team has agreed to leave the 2007 Tour de France:

Christian Prudhomme, the Director of the Tour de France, and Patrice Clerc, wanted to reaffirm in Pau their stance in the fight against doping and to assure the public of their determination to insist with the battle. “The start in London was a formidable occasion to re-conquer. It has failed. The riders have to understand that they are playing a game of Russian roulette if they are doping. They have to realize that we will never give up the war against doping in which we are involved. Doping ruins our childhood dreams. Vinokourov has cheated and the only possible answer was: leave! It’s an absolute failure of the system. It has to change now. The re-conquering of cycling has to be done with the Tour de France. I started this job believing that we could change this system but it’s not enough: there has to be a revolution!”


What an absolute disgrace. It's very disappointing to see such a great sport again compsomised.

I was fast becoming a fan of Vino for the guts he has shown throughout the tour. Turns out he's a cheating ****!

[scoob]

It is a real shame!!!

I love watching the tour, but everytime you see someone show some guts and determination and put in a unbelievable ride the first thing that comes to mind is that they are cheating! Perfect example was last year when Landis cracked during a stage lsat year then comes out and blows them away in the next stage - even worst he went on to win the tour!!!

Anyone caught cheating banned for life and any team caught with cheaters serve 5 year ban from the tour... its is in desperate need of a clean up!

[smac]

Genuine question.

What advantage can be gained from a blood transfusion?

[Stumps]

Im not a GP Ecky but i'd say more 0xygen levels in the blood that have been depleted and hence less lactate etc (biproducts/waste). Someone with more info would be good to hear.

Im pretty disappointed, have always been a fan of Vino and thought it could be a fairytale for him this year. Was it wiggins that finished 2nd in the TT? I cant quite remember and cant be bothered looking it up....Maybe a retrospective stage win??

BTW Graham L- your sounding a bit like eddie mcguire with this "cant change the jersey attitude" joking mate

[fuzz]

Genuine question.

What advantage can be gained from a blood transfusion?

Don't quote me on this but red blood cells carry oxygen through the body, and by increasing red blood cells it increases the amount of oxygen that can be pumped through the body, therefore improving performance. Hopefully someone else can clarify it a bit further.

It is an absolute disgrace that people continue to tarnish sport in general by using performance enhancing drugs. The Tour de France was one of, if not the best sporting event in the world. Until the sport can rid itself of drug cheats, it will never be taken seriously again, which is a shame.

[Grahaml]

That's right, it's all about the red blood cells. Chemically what happens is the Oxygen molecules bond with the Iron of the Haem molecule which is part of a red blood cell. The oxygen then assists with the burning of energy. Just like a fire, add a bit more oxygen and it will burn more readily. The human body has something like 7 or 8 Litres of blood in it most of the time from memory, so an extra pint or two might only increase the amount of blood by 5% or so but when you're talking high performance like this then there's something to be gained for sure.

Doping can be done by either a transfusion from a compatible donor, just like a normal blood transfusion, from an animal source in some cases (apparently cows blood can be quite useful) or from a series of donations from the person wanting to dope. The body will naturally produce more blood to replace any losses, so if you collect small amounts of your own blood over time your body will top it up to the normal level then when you add your own blood back into your system then you will have 5% more red blood cells than you would normally. It's relatively easy to see if the blood cells are from another source if you look closely at them, but apparently they can now test the age of blood cells. If this is the case then blood doping whould be a thing of the past in a couple of years.

Unfortunately there will always be another drug, and there will always be cheaters. There will be future winners who cheated, and maybe even this years winner will have cheated. Perhaps the entire top 10 will be cheaters. All we can hope is that one day it's clean enough that cheating will be very hard to do. I'm glad cycling is so tough on cheaters, and I think it would be worth collecting a sample from every rider every day is taken and stored. When new tests are implemented then they could start testing in retrospect until we can one day say which riders were clean and which weren't from the tour 6 years ago. It will also leave no rider at an unfair advantage by having not been tested if all riders have to go through the same thing.

Anyway, go Cadel. No Kloden now means 3rd is just about sewn up now. Go for broke tonight and give 1st a shot. If not I hope you recover to win the last TT with the best two challengers now gone.

[smac]

Thanks chaps, saved me a google.

[PLETTONIC]

Stumps it was Cadel that finished 2nd in the TT. Wiggins was a bit disapointing but I think he was mainly there for the Prologue and to wear the Yellow for the first stage or two, or at least that was what his team were hoping for.
It is very sad what has happened with Vino but it is good to see the Kazak government has stated they are not going to pull their sponsorship from the team and they still have the up and coming Kazak rider Kashechin.
Cadel if he is to pull time off the leaders in the mountains may need to try and go for it from the bottom of the mountain and treat the Aubisque as a time trial to use his superior power to advantage rather than sit on wheels to limit the damage.

[Grahaml]

It's obvious he doesn't have th acceleration of the other guys, so I did consider whether he would be better off trying to be ahead before the last climb or try to go a little faster up the whole thing from the beginning. However, he did look like he was already at 100% when Contador and Rasmussen pulled away a couple of days ago. Not sure there's anything more he can do other than try to stay with them as long as possible, take the third place he has now and hope for a miracle come final TT. I think he may well pull Contador in by 3 minutes or more so status quo gives him a chance of 2nd. Rasmussen would surely do well enough to not burn his 4 minute advantage. Rasmussen would be crazy to try anything other than sprint to the finish in the last 5 if he has the power.

Jonker in his column said he would never win the tour with PL since they don't have the strentgh of Rabobank, Astana, Discovery Channel, SCS and Caisse D'Epargne. That Horner bloke has done a great job for where he's come from but seriously he's not the sort of helper who can do anything other than donate a bike.

[am Bays]

OMG mow Rasmussen's gone.....kicked out by his own team becasue he lied about his wearbaouts vis-a-vis the drug tests he didn't take.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/tour-shock-as-leader-dropped/2007/07/26/1185339115976.html

Evans now second a podium finish all but assured, may even win the thing but unfortunately noone is going to rememebr the winner of this tour, like last years "winner" for the right reasons.....