The Tour of France

[SK]

I really dislike Cavendish, don't know why, but i really don't like the sort of sprinters that have to be dragged by 7 or 8 of his team mates to 50m from the finish line. Yet they struggle at the slightest climbs.

Fantastic to see Voeckler in yellow though and i think he's going to make the race far more interesting than it would have been if one of the other big names would be in the lead.

[Neil Young]

I really dislike Cavendish, don't know why, but i really don't like the sort of sprinters that have to be dragged by 7 or 8 of his team mates to 50m from the finish line. Yet they struggle at the slightest climbs.

Fantastic to see Voeckler in yellow though and i think he's going to make the race far more interesting than it would have been if one of the other big names would be in the lead.

You don't win Milan-San Remo if you can't get over the slightest climb.

Cycling is a complex sport - there are riders who can sprint, riders who can climb, riders who can time trial, riders who can do all of them well but no rider who can excel in all areas. The closest to that was Eddy Merckx.

And it's a team sport for individuals. It's not as simple as the best rider wins. Because when you have so many variables, so many facets, what do you mean by 'best'?

So it ends up being highly tactical. It's like having a running race where you have a marathon runner and Usain Bolt competing against each other. The marathon runner doesn't want it to end in a sprint and Usain Bolt doesn't want the pace to be so fast throughout the 26 miles that he can't keep up.

Of course in reality that can never happen in athletics because Usain Bolt would be dropped immediately. But that isn't the case in cycling. Two good riders riding together are quicker than either would be on their own.

To me one of the beauties of bike racing is that you can have those different specialists, with different physical capabilities, competing against each other. The balance in favour of one or the other varies according to the course and how the riders want to race. It's constantly shifting so even when nothing appears to be happening, it often is.

Of course if you don't like Cavendish because he's a mouthy git then fair enough.

[Darkon]

Neil - I completely agree I'm impatient as bloody hell right now, but it's partly due to this being one of the thoughest stages of the year and it's been placed very early in the mountain stages. Plus I always get impatient because the tour for me doesn't really start untill today - although the first 1½ week have been crazy this year!

I think a part of my seeming impatience is also due to the last 3 tours where very little have happened on the big etapes, and the favorites have waited untill the last 2 mountain etapes before attacking which I think is a shame considering some of the best are placed early.

The difference this time is the time between the favorites already. Schleck brothers have to attack Evans, and probably Contador, at some point because of the time trial still left. Contador can perhaps wait untill the Alpes to try and settle it because of the said trial. Evans is a big joker, he usually have 1-2 off day(s) in the mountains, so he might be set early?

Samuel Sanchez is far behind and have quite a lot to prove, Klöden is now a sort of captain and is capable of using the mountains - all interesting. Concerning the former, it is rumoured in Denmark (Saxo Bank team is Danish), that Samuel Sanchez and Contador have formed an alliance against the Schleck - that could become interesting, so the brothers don't hold all the cards.

Lastly the weather on Turmele is supposedly quite bad right now !

[Neil Young]

There were attacks in both the last two years. How about the stage last year when Schleck's chain came off? And, apart from Ventoux when he failed to go for it because he was waiting for Frank, there was a fair deal of drama in 2009 too.

But this year it is more open, mainly due to Contador riding the Giro, so let's hope for more action.

Sanchez may attack but I don't see him as a genuine contender for victory. But yeah, an alliance would make life interesting.

I think you're right about Evans - I think he will struggle in the mountains (but maybe not yet) if the Schlecks and Contador go for it. Frank Schleck has been hopeless at time trialling though and, apart from last year's final ITT, so has his brother. It'll be interesting to see whether they've been taking it easy in time trials this year to hide any improvements they may have made.

Anyway I'm out this afternoon so will have to watch the stage tomorrow before tomorrow's stage. Therefore I won't be logging into this thread so I don't know what happens.

[Darkon]

good choice - keep of real time as well then I sugget

Also don't read PM's I send you, I might sneak in a spoiler in the music thread who knows

[Fredo]

How's Contador's form? There were talks that he could abandon a couple of days ago. I haven't been able to follow at all since it started. I might try to catch up on l'etape du jour as it's bound to be a classic.

[Darkon]

hmm, hard to say really. It's suprisingly good considering he won the Giro. But he has been to the ground 3 times already and claims to have a hurt knee now, nobody knows if it's a bluff or he really is hurt.

I know as much as Saxo Bank refuse to talk tactics today, and that is not normal for them, so I reckon they have something special planned.

[SK]

You don't win Milan-San Remo if you can't get over the slightest climb.

Cycling is a complex sport - there are riders who can sprint, riders who can climb, riders who can time trial, riders who can do all of them well but no rider who can excel in all areas. The closest to that was Eddy Merckx.

And it's a team sport for individuals. It's not as simple as the best rider wins. Because when you have so many variables, so many facets, what do you mean by 'best'?

So it ends up being highly tactical. It's like having a running race where you have a marathon runner and Usain Bolt competing against each other. The marathon runner doesn't want it to end in a sprint and Usain Bolt doesn't want the pace to be so fast throughout the 26 miles that he can't keep up.

Of course in reality that can never happen in athletics because Usain Bolt would be dropped immediately. But that isn't the case in cycling. Two good riders riding together are quicker than either would be on their own.

To me one of the beauties of bike racing is that you can have those different specialists, with different physical capabilities, competing against each other. The balance in favour of one or the other varies according to the course and how the riders want to race. It's constantly shifting so even when nothing appears to be happening, it often is.

Of course if you don't like Cavendish because he's a mouthy git then fair enough.

that

plus i do admire more those sprinters who finish maybe not at the very top, but do finish without the aid of a train of seven men.

but to your earlier point, i know it's a team sport, but to have a team solely made up for Cav winning a few sprints in something i can't comprehand.

i mean take Omega Pharma-Lotto for example, they have(had) Van Den Broeck who's a climber, they have Gilbert who's as allround cyclist as you can get today, and they have Greipel who's a sprinter and the rest of the team to aid them in anyway possible.

[Neil Young]

Sure. But if you've got the fastest man in the world in your team then you'd be daft not to build it around him, just like Saxo Bank build their team around the best stage race rider in the world going for the overall.

Lotto don't build a team around Greipel because he won't win often enough when Cav is riding. Even so they have used all their riders at times to try to get him to a stage win, like on Tuesday when it worked.

And HTC do have riders going for other things too, like Martin and Van Garderen.

Cavendish is seventh in the all-time list of Tour stage winners. That's amazing. And he's what, 25?

You might not like him but you've got to respect his record, lead-out train or not.

[livvy145]

Thomas doing well up the Tourmalet, be a fantastic win if he can keep it up.

[MrsB]

i've started to get back into this again after about a 5 or 6 year gap. I used to love the days of Greg LeMond, Laurent Fignon, Stephen Roache, Indurain, Sean Kelly, Delgado etc

Ah good days...

Indurain was the most boring person in this world though.

Neil, no one on the entire internet is older than you.

[Phil]

Excellent show on right now (Chasing Legends - ITV4) about behind the scenes on the tour with HTC. It's repeated on Sunday 4.30pm

[Neil Young]

What a couple of stages. Interesting to see Contador lose time yesterday and now a fantastic ride by Hushovd today.

Tomorrow should be good.

[Neil Young]

Neil, no one on the entire internet is older than you.

[Neil Young]

It's the Thor de France.