Tour de France 2009

[MightyEagles]

Team Pantani is waiting for administrator approval.

What a great month or so with the ashes & the tour on.

Both on SBS.

[heater31]

Speed Eagles is waiting for the go ahead.

so is Heater's Hotshots

[pels]

Team Pantani is waiting for administrator approval.

What a great month or so with the ashes & the tour on.

Both on SBS.

The TV will not change much from SBS 1 & 2 for the month of July other than the odd game of football

[Squawk]

Speed Eagles and Team Pantani have been accepted. They haven't shown in the league table as yet - do you get sent another link to confirm your registration?

Still waiting for the team called "Wheels" something or other to show up up again.

These are the teams in the league not counting Speed Eagles and Team Pantani:

0 Fortis in Procella
0 whufc
0 PIDGE (only 3 riders selected so far).
0 Heaters Hotshots
0 Speed Demon

Off to the footy now so I will check back in when I return tonight.

[Squawk]

Starts at 1130pm TONIGHT on SBS One. 15km individual time trial.

[dedja]

Good solid start by Cadel ... and by Lance for that matter too.

[Squawk]

Cavendish wins the stage in a bunch finish - by about 3 lengths. Watch for the crash about 1km from the finish as a few riders went wayward at a point where the service vehicles are to exit - and a few cyclists took that route only to realise too late that it wasn't the course to the finish line! No 63 went down (Euskadel Euskadi rider in orange). Thor Hushovd got 4th. Tom Boonen nowhere to be seen, Cancellara holds on to the yellow jersey and Vaikonnen (Finland) takes the KOM jersey.

[Stumps]

Looked like the first big day in the saddle sorted out a few with the undulating terrain. Cavendish's team were on fire all day and he was always a huge show to win it- pretty non eventful finish in the day.
Great effort for vaikonnen the first finnish rider ever in the polka- nipeed out to a 5 minute breakaway and claimed all the climbing points- would be a sore boy today. looking forward to team time trial tomorrow night- always good to watch
Cadel going ok keeping out of trouble-
Ogrady did alot of work at the front of the peleton to reign in the breakaway- and rogers as well.
Not sure what tonights stage will bring- but looking fwd to it

[PLETTONIC]

Tonights stage is another for the sprinters so expect the Colombia train to reign again. the Team time trial will be interesting battle between Astana and Saxo Bank but I recon the Garmin Slipstream team can be the danger to the two big teams with their TT specialists in Millar, Wiggins and Zabriskie

[devilsadvocate]

Sorry lads, I missed the kick off and the dream teams. Bugger.

Great effort overnight by Michael Rodgers to get his team mate Mark Cavendish over the line.

Cadel is sitting in a strong position and IMO, doesn't need his team mates to get him close. Refer to the well documented loner status Cadel likes from last years TDF thread.

It's all too early to make predictions with so many riders being a realistic chance of winning. The mountains in a few days time will help sort the yellow jersey contenders from the sprinters and team players etc. I personally can't wait to see how Lance goes and am also very interested to see how Cavendish deals with the hills. Cavendish is a freak, but I can't see him doing anything but scrape through in the uphill stages.

Finally, typical bloody Americans have ruined the telecast here in Canada by putting their own commentators in place who do nothing but make stupid captain obvious comments all show. Phil Liggett is in my opinion the BEST commentator in world sport in any discipline. Why would you not run with his comments?

[Squawk]

very interested to see how Cavendish deals with the hills. Cavendish is a freak, but I can't see him doing anything but scrape through in the uphill stages.

Finally, typical bloody Americans have ruined the telecast here in Canada by putting their own commentators in place who do nothing but make stupid captain obvious comments all show. Phil Liggett is in my opinion the BEST commentator in world sport in any discipline. Why would you not run with his comments?

Cavendish has pretty good climbing ability by all accounts and has just done the Giro I think, so he has miles in his legs.

You might be able to stream the Liggett commentary via the SBS website stream?

Interesting this year that Phil Sherwen seems to be throwing his weight around over Phil Liggett - keeps finding ways to point out Phil L has said something incorrect. Almost as if he is sick of reading out fact sheets about every castle and the local farmers in each of the departments making hay bale tributes... - has anyone else noticed this?

[dedja]

Interesting this year that Phil Sherwen seems to be throwing his weight around over Phil Liggett ...

Paul Sherwen

[devilsadvocate]

very interested to see how Cavendish deals with the hills. Cavendish is a freak, but I can't see him doing anything but scrape through in the uphill stages.

Finally, typical bloody Americans have ruined the telecast here in Canada by putting their own commentators in place who do nothing but make stupid captain obvious comments all show. Phil Liggett is in my opinion the BEST commentator in world sport in any discipline. Why would you not run with his comments?

Cavendish has pretty good climbing ability by all accounts and has just done the Giro I think, so he has miles in his legs.

You might be able to stream the Liggett commentary via the SBS website stream?

Interesting this year that Phil Sherwen seems to be throwing his weight around over Phil Liggett - keeps finding ways to point out Phil L has said something incorrect. Almost as if he is sick of reading out fact sheets about every castle and the local farmers in each of the departments making hay bale tributes... - has anyone else noticed this?

Seems I jumped the gun with sledging the yanks. Phil is commentating on the actual race. The yanks commentate on the highlights show.

Interesting developments with the breakaways towards the end of the stage. Michael Rodgers is moving right up and Lance is amazingly close to the overall lead.

[Squawk]

A stunning stage to watch. High Road Coloumbia obviously pre-planned the split. The commentators din't make anything of this, but at about 33km to go there was a cross road where the road split with a divider. When the 4 man breakaway went through the cameras were with them and they actually got a little confused but followed the leading car to the right. A few minutes later the same confusion happened in the peleton and Cancellara had to hop the divider in the road. HRC were all at the front and the big bunch of the peleton had to slow to deal with the confusion and it was strung out. Right then, HRC put their foot down and within 1km they had split the peleton in the crosswind and the switching, bending road. Cavendish was talking tactics with his team car a good 50km before this - and I think their plan was solidifed at that point because as a sprinter, he was there at the front when he had to be - and so were the other 8 HRC riders! Amazing stuff.
Cavendish first from Hushovd. The breakaway stole 40 seconds. Cancellara was there as was Armstrong, who moved up to third! Contador is now Armstrong's lacky/domestique for at least another 3 days until stage 7 Andorra/Barcelona! Evans missed the split, along with Contador, Sastre, Menchov and both the Schlecks - but Kim Kirchen was in the split! The Tour is suddenly alive with the TTT tomorrow. At only 39km, there wont be big time gaps between the leading teams, but clearly the top ones will be Astana, Saxo-Bank, Garmin-Slipstream and HRC. I don't hold any hope for Cadel's team Silence Lotto in the TTT - Cadel could lose another 1-2 minutes tomorrow.

[devilsadvocate]

A stunning stage to watch. High Road Coloumbia obviously pre-planned the split. The commentators din't make anything of this, but at about 33km to go there was a cross road where the road split with a divider. When the 4 man breakaway went through the cameras were with them and they actually got a little confused but followed the leading car to the right. A few minutes later the same confusion happened in the peleton and Cancellara had to hop the divider in the road. HRC were all at the front and the big bunch of the peleton had to slow to deal with the confusion and it was strung out. Right then, HRC put their foot down and within 1km they had split the peleton in the crosswind and the switching, bending road. Cavendish was talking tactics with his team car a good 50km before this - and I think their plan was solidifed at that point because as a sprinter, he was there at the front when he had to be - and so were the other 8 HRC riders! Amazing stuff.
Cavendish first from Hushovd. The breakaway stole 40 seconds. Cancellara was there as was Armstrong, who moved up to third! Contador is now Armstrong's lacky/domestique for at least another 3 days until stage 7 Andorra/Barcelona! Evans missed the split, along with Contador, Sastre, Menchov and both the Schlecks - but Kim Kirchen was in the split! The Tour is suddenly alive with the TTT tomorrow. At only 39km, there wont be big time gaps between the leading teams, but clearly the top ones will be Astana, Saxo-Bank, Garmin-Slipstream and HRC. I don't hold any hope for Cadel's team Silence Lotto in the TTT - Cadel could lose another 1-2 minutes tomorrow.

Well put.

I agree that Cadel may be in trouble tomorrow. Huge mistake by Cadel to miss the breakaway. The Schlecks will be kicking themselves too. Still Cadel will come into his own in the mountains.

Brilliant stuff by the Columbia team. They are so well organised. Hopefully Rodgers can stick with the Astana guys after tomorrows TTT and push his claim in the mountains. Make no mistake, he's a real good chance at winning the tour. Let's hope he stays on his bike the whole way this year!!!

IMO, Rodgers is a better chance at winning it than Cadel.

[Dogwatcher]

How good is Cavendish?

As long as Cadel can stick within 40 seconds of the leaders, he'll be right in the thick of it come the climbs.

[dedja]

I'm afraid Cadel (or more to the point his team for not being able to bridge the gap to the breakaway group) is in serious trouble now.

Long, long way to go, but there will be a few clackers tightening with the sight of LiveStrong at the top end of the field.

Tonight could be real ugly for Cadel unfortunately.

[Dogwatcher]

You're right about tonight.
Can't wait to watch it.
Missus is going to have to come into the Bat Cave to see me for the next couple of weeks.

[devilsadvocate]

I'm afraid Cadel (or more to the point his team for not being able to bridge the gap to the breakaway group) is in serious trouble now.

Long, long way to go, but there will be a few clackers tightening with the sight of LiveStrong at the top end of the field.

Tonight could be real ugly for Cadel unfortunately.

I wouldn't say serious trouble, but he could have definitely done with the 40 odd seconds gap he lost today going into the TTT tomorrow.

I'll go out on a limb and say he'll finish top 3 (barring an accident or technical disaster). Lets all remember too that Lance is 36.

[Squawk]

Astana won the team time trial.
Silence Lotto not even top 10 after a fall and a puncture cost them big time - Cadel must have lost 2 minutes out there today, putting him around 3 mins behind the mailot jeune.
Garmion awesome
BBox lost 4 riders in a single mishap on one corner!
Cancellara maintains yellow from Armstrong by less than a second would you believe.
Cavendish still in Green, Vaikonnen still in polka dots. I assume Martin is still in white also.
Astana now have 4 of the top 5 riders in the GC I think - Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer and I think Kloden is in there too.
Menchov in just as much trouble as Evans but has a stronger climbing team so could pip Cadel in the GC also.
Rodgers probably Australia's best hope now and is a genuine top-10 prospect in the GC IMHO.