Viva Le Tour - Tour de France 2011

[Grahaml]

Tonight's stage looks to be the first real test. Last night I had to admire Vinikourov's individual determination which nearly came off for him. I still cant fathom how he ended up losing 30-40 seconds in the last km though after being 12 seconds behind Costa. Did he have a mechanical issue or did he just hit the wall? No one seems to be talking about his great fadeout in the last km.

He lost momentum, but the main contenders showed exactly why they're so highly regarded and flew up the last part of the climb just to see if they could drop one or two off the back and get a few seconds. And a few even tried to jump off the front and gain a few seconds. Vino was actually lucky there wasn't another kilometer left or I think he'd have lost time so people will look at one hand as he got 1k from being able to win a stage and gain time on everyone, but also that he was another 1k from losing perhaps a minute to the main contenders too.

I do agree that apart from the main 3 we're all talking about, the others need to try something. If nothing else to keep making those 3 work harder than they'd like. Vino one day, Voeckler the next, Millar has a go one day, Basso too. Eventually one might get lucky and if I was someone like Vino I'd take my chances coming up with an alliance with the others looking likely to finish 4th-10th in a raffle between those guys instead of taking on Contador, Schleck and Evans.

[Trader]

Huge crash, hope they show some better footage of it.

[dedja]

absolute carnage with a massive crash ... a couple of retirements likely.

Vinokourov especially is in big trouble.

[geppscrossrams]

Vinokurov involved in a big accident on the descent of the first category 2 climb. Looks like a few others are involved and may have to pull out of the tour.

[geppscrossrams]

Jurgen van den Brook out as well as Vinakurov.

[dedja]

Van Den Broeck even ...

[geppscrossrams]

French television car has just taken out two riders in the breakaway (hoogerland and flecha). Hoogerland could very well be out of the race after taking the lead in the king of the mountain classification.

[pels]

French television car has just taken out two riders in the breakaway (hoogerland and flecha). Hoogerland could very well be out of the race after taking the lead in the king of the mountain classification.

That was crazy, these cyclists are insane
That driver of that car should be shot

[pels]

LL Sanchez wins the stage, Voeckler in yellow

GC: standings are
Voeckler
LL Sanchez 1'49"
Evans 2'26"
Schleck F 2'29"
Schleck A 2'37"

Another crazy stage with numerous crashers & some big names going down, anything can happen in the TDF this year, rest day on Monday.
SBS just showed some vision of Karpets pushing Contador off his bike early on in the stage GOLD

[Trader]

That TV camera car vs two cyclists was nuts.

For those that missed it....
[url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4qooXt0XWw[/url]

[Grahaml]

I've never seen anything like that before. Riders make mistakes, that's part of the deal. Sometimes riders push things too far as well. But a car swerving into riders? Incredible. The driver will clearly never cover the TDF again, but you wonder whether there might be some criminal action in that. If anything the guy is lucky he got tandled in a barbed wire fence. At that speed if he tumbles into a solid tree it could have been much worse. So good to see both rejoin the race but they were in magnificent shape for a chance at a stage win.

Strategically, Cadel AGAIN did things perfectly and looks like he's won 3 tours not Contador. While the Schlecks look scary strong. Contador again on the ground with no support from a weak team looks very vulnerable. I can easily see the battle up L'Alp d'Huez being F and A Schleck taking on Evans to decide the gaps the top 3 will have going into the final time trial.

[fuzz]

French television car has just taken out two riders in the breakaway (hoogerland and flecha). Hoogerland could very well be out of the race after taking the lead in the king of the mountain classification.

That was crazy, these cyclists are insane
That driver of that car should be shot

Super effort by both to finish the stage. One of the gutsiet efforts I have seen by any sportsmen for quite some time

[Squawk]

All I can say about last night's stage is that is was probably the most dramatic stage I have ever seen. I'm just aghast at the Vinikourov crash taking out so many potential top 10 riders, and I cant comprehend that second crash at all. I saw it before Liggett and Sherwen picked it up but it was only in slo-mo that i saw poor old Hoogerland catapaulted over his handlebars into the barb wire fence. The KOM leader, no less. On that note, it might be time to peruse the write up in the english version of Le Monde! That french driver will be more infamous than Henri Paul is.

[am Bays]

I've never seen anything like that before. Riders make mistakes, that's part of the deal. Sometimes riders push things too far as well. But a car swerving into riders? Incredible. The driver will clearly never cover the TDF again, but you wonder whether there might be some criminal action in that. If anything the guy is lucky he got tandled in a barbed wire fence. At that speed if he tumbles into a solid tree it could have been much worse. So good to see both rejoin the race but they were in magnificent shape for a chance at a stage win.

Strategically, Cadel AGAIN did things perfectly and looks like he's won 3 tours not Contador. While the Schlecks look scary strong. Contador again on the ground with no support from a weak team looks very vulnerable. I can easily see the battle up L'Alp d'Huez being F and A Schleck taking on Evans to decide the gaps the top 3 will have going into the final time trial.

Agreed, Couldn't believe it when there were no SAxo-bank riders coming back to help Contador re-join teh peloton when he fell before teh first cat 2 climb (IIRC). Compare this to the help Vinokourov got from his team (Contadors old one) when he fell (different circumstances I know) the difference was striking. Looks like Contador is going to have to win this on his own.

The car driver in teh 2nd major crash, well words fail me how dumb can you get???

[am Bays]

Evans is clearly in much better form than ever. Whether that remains for the whole tour remains to be seen, but kicked away from Schleck and Contador nicely there. Looks punchier than ever too. Once again, not hanging onto, but leading the main 2. I'd be watching him very carefully if I was Leopard-Trek and SaxoBank. Especially with the strength his team showed. Contador's team did nothing but follow and still fell off the back.

I'm going to call it, might be early, and I won't write off a 3 time champ, but he's no longer the favourite in my eyes. I give that title to Andy Schleck now.

not only is cadel in good form, but his team is too. last year he ahd Hincapie as his #2 but when Cadel needed supprt in the first climb in Alps, Hincapie was one of the first riders to crack. This year all teh BMC riders appear to be in good form. as GreameL and Squawk have stated already.

Think the GC is going to come down to BMC and Leopard now.

[mickey]

Not really where u want to crash on a bike..



Cadel is in great form and looking so strong, just wish the peanuts on the afternoon AM radio show knew something about cycling before they comment on it.. the bit i heard as they were going through the overnight headlines at the start of the show was how Evans slipped back a couple of minutes and is struggling....

[mickey]

I would be suing the ding dong driver if i was them..

[mickey]

That TV camera car vs two cyclists was nuts.

For those that missed it....
[url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4qooXt0XWw[/url]

Have embedded the clip on here for ya trader

[Squawk]

Looking at the vision, does anyone think it was a lady driving that car?

[Grahaml]

just wish the peanuts on the afternoon AM radio show knew something about cycling before they comment on it

People shouldn't comment if they know nothing about a topic. No doubt the person responsible was asked to give something and looked at the overall standings and made it up, but would it really take long to read the TDF site? Or look at a write up?

I really liked the lad's comments about the crash. As per the TDF site:

“We can still be happy that we’re alive. It’s horrible. I can blame everyone but I don’t think anyone does this sort of thing on purpose. I think the people in the car will have a very big guilty feeling and they will surely apologize to me and Flecha.
“Juan Antonio came to me an he apologized.
“It should not happen but it’s always possible that this sort of thing happens.
“Nobody can be blamed for this. It’s a horrible accident and I was in it. But I said to Flecha, ‘We’re still alive and Wouter Weylandt died in a crash.

Read that and felt a lot less rage. No doubt the driver didn't mean to. He made an error in judgement and to make up for that made one brief but horrible mistake. He's kicked off the tour and will have more repercussions later on no doubt. Perhaps even legal ones, depending on French road laws.

Onwards to the next 2 stages before hopefully an epic Bastille Day on Thursday. Tomorrow looks like another classics style stage that might see another breakaway stay away. We'll surely see riders like Rojas and Gilbert ask their teams to push hard to eliminate Cavendish and Farrar from the leading group at the end of the stage. But that second category 3 climb is probably one of the tougher ones, especially since it climbs up for some time after the "summit", albeit nothing dramatic but anyone dropping off before that summit point will almost certainly not rejoin before the end. At this stage I like Gilbert for green. He'll be close enough on all the major sprints and pick up cheap points on intermediates and finishes that only a few others (importantly not Cavensish) will contest.

The overall standings at the rest day see far more action than we thought. No climbs over category 2 should mean 15-20 top 10 hopefuls all within around 30 seconds of each other. But we've lose 4 team leaders, a couple of the stronger domestiques while most others have lost over a minute to Cadel. If we take Cadel as the effective leader (Voeckler and Sanchez are no doubt strong riders, but not likely top 10 GC guys) then only 4 top 10 challengers are within a minute. Contador the only one capable of passing for good of those outside that. I still like Andy Schleck for the overall, but Evans second and Kloden third. I think Frank will sacrifice his podium chance for Andy and Contador will finish 4th.